LC 






DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 
BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1919, No. 61 



PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND 

INFORMATION SERVICE OF 

UNIVERSITY EXTENSION 



By 



WALTON S. BITTNER 

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR IN CHARGE OF PUBLIC 

WELFARE SERVICE. EXTENSION DIVISION 

INDL\NA UNIVERSITY 




WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFTICE 

1920 






BTIIIETm OF THE BUREAU OF EDUCATION FOR 1919. 

No. 1. Monthly record of current educational publications, January, 1919. 

2. Standardization of medical inspection facilities. J. H. Berkowitz. 

3. Home education. Ellen O. Lombard. 

4. A manual of educational legislation. 

5. Instruction in music, 1916--1918. Waldo S. Pratt. 

6. The half-time school, 191&-19i8. H. W. Foght. 

7. Rural education. H. W, Foght. 

8. Life of Henry Barnard. Bernard C. Steiner. 

9. Education in Great Britain and^ Ireland. I. L. Kandel. 

10. Educational work of the churches in 1916-1918. 

11. Monthly record of current educational publications, February, 1919. 

12. Education in the Territories and dependencies. 

13. Review of educational legislation, 1917 and 1918. W. R. Hood. 

14. Monthly record of current educational publications, March, 1919. 

15. The adjustment of the teaching load in a university. L, Y. Koos. 

16. The kindergarten curriculum. Almira M. Winchester. 

17. Educational conditions in Spain. Walter A. Montgomery. 

18. Commercial education, 1916-1918. Frank V. Thompson. 

19. Engineering education, 1916-1918. F. L, Bishop. 

20. The rural teacher of Nebraska.- 

21. Education In Germany. I. L. Kandel. 

22. A survey of higher education, 1916-1918. Samuel P. Capen and Walton 

0. John./ 

23. Monthly record of current educational publications, April, 1919. 

24. Educational work of the Boy Scouts. Lome W. Barclay. 

25. Vocational education. William T. Bawden. 

26. The United States School Garden Army. J. H. Francis. 

27. Recent progress in negro education. Thomas Jesse Jones. > 

28. Educational periodicals during the nineteenth century. Sheldon E. Davis. 

29. Schools of Scandinavia, Finland, and Holland. Peter H. Pearson. 

30. The American spirit in education. C. R. Mann. 

31. Summer schools in 1918. 

32. Monthly record of current educational publications— Index, February, 

1918-January, 1919. - 

33. Girl Scouts as an educational force. Juliette Law. 

34. Monthly record of current educational publications. May, 1919. 

35. The junior college. F. M. McDowell. 

36. Education in Italy. ; Walter A. Montgomery. 

37. Educational changes in Russia. Theresa Bach. 

38. Education in Switzerland, 1916-1918. Peter H. Pearson. 

39. Training little children. 

40. Work of the Bureau of Education for the natives of Alaska, 1917-18. 

41. An educational study of Alabama. 

42. Monthly record of current educational publications, June, 1819. 

43. Education in France. I. L. Kandel. 

44. Modern education in China. Charles K. Edmunds. 

(Continued on paje S of cover.) 



DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN. 1919, No. 61 



PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND 

INFORMATION SERVICE OF 

UNIVERSITY EXTENSION 



By 



WALTON S. BITTNER 

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR IN CHARGE OP PUBLIC 

WELFARE SERVICE. EXTENSION DIVISION 

INDIANA UNIVERSITY 




WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1920 



IP 



6 



ADDITIONAL COPIES 

OF THIS PUBLICATION MAT BE PROCURED FROM 

THE SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

"WASHINGTON, D. C. 

AT 

10 CENTS PER COPY 
V 



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MAX 12 |92Qj 



CONTENTS. 



Extension bureaus of information 5 

Limited activities of bureaus 7 

University service and public opinion 10 

Tlie package library service 16 

General information service 24 

Club study and library service 27 

Club study, public discussion, and library service by States 34 

Assistance in debating and other lorms of public discussion 41 

Educational value of debating and public discussion 48 

The scope of extension service ^ 52 

3 



PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND INFORMATION 
SERVICE OF UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 



'* Government by discussion breaks down the tyranny of fixed cus- 
tom ; continuous public debate on public problems is the root of change 
and progress ; community discussion breeds tolerance ; it makes for 
steady instead of intermittent progress. In fact, common counsel, public 
debate, community discussion, call it what you will, underlies the con- 
structive solution of all the vexed situations that a nation faces in a time 
of readjustment and change." 

This quotation from an article ^ by Mr. Glenn Frank on the forum, 
the lyceum, and the Chautauqua, states vrith fair accuracy the 
judgment of university officers vrho have had charge of the public 
discussion, package library, and information service of the university 
extension divisions in the States. This service, designed as a device 
for promoting public discussion, for providing means of " common 
counsel," includes also peculiar measures for disseminating informa- 
tion among the people as a basis for intelligent discussion. It is the 
aim of this bulletin to describe in some detail the scope and methods 
of university extension bureaus ^ with particular reference to those 
which actively stimulate public discussion on current public ques- 
tions. Chief attention will be given to the work they do in assisting 
public discussion leagues and clubs, and in carrying on package li- 
brary service. The package library is the special device developed by 
the extension divisions for furnishing up-to-date facts and opinions 
on debatable questions of general interest. 

Extension bureaus of information. — Since there is no single 
term which describes the varied methods employed by edu- 
cational institutions for the dissemination of information among 
the mass of people, nor any one clearly dominant and uni- 
fying purpose or objective for the work as a whole, it follows that 
the public discussion, package library, and general information serv- 
ices of the university extension divisions do not lend themselves 
readily to grouping under one identifying head, unless certain other 
activities or characteristic devices are arbitrarily excluded from con- 
sideration. The justification for such grouping lies in the fact that 

1 The Parliament of the People. By Glenn Frank, in the Century, July, 1919. 

" It is not within the scope of this bulletin to treat of the work of the municipal and 
private universities, or that of the colleges, the normal schools, and the other institu- 
tions which are making important contributions in the field of public discussion. 

5 



6 PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 

a number of the largest State universities have set up in their exten- 
sion divisions certain bureaus variously designated as " Bureau of 
Public Discussion," " Bureau of Debating and Public Discussion," 
or " Bureau of Information," whose work comprises such activities 
as holding debate contests, lending package libraries, and answering 
by mail requests for information on current topics. Other bureau 
designations are used to cover the limited number of activities 
grouped together largely for convenience in administration. 

The fact is, however, that practically all devices of university 
extension — correspondence study, lectures, motion pictures, lantern 
slides, and exhibits — serve at times and in part to promote public 
discussion or to furnish information on public questions and 
miscellaneous topics. 

To understand the special service under consideration it is neces- 
sary to have some sort of interpretation of the fundamental prin- 
ciples of university extension in general. An inadequate but usable 
definiton of those principles is that the university should serve as a 
channel through which flows an increasing stream of the workable 
knowledge and experience of civilization. University extension 
should offer not only the opportunity of self -directed study for the 
great mass of persons who wish to continue systematically their 
preparation for personal advancement; but it should provide the 
indispensable connection between scientific knowledge and the every- 
day practice necessary for sound community development, between 
the facts accumulated through research and their application to the 
practical problems which must be met by individuals and communi- 
ties in a democratic society. It should tap not only the resources of 
teaching and research in the universities themselves, but also the 
great reservoir of knowledge and experience outside, the rich store 
of information in books, periodicals, and other printed matter, in the 
laboratories of the Grovemment and in private industrial plants, in 
the words of statesmen and educators who serve the public. Uni- 
versity extension is not merely educational in the limited sense; it 
attempts to make facts, knowledge, truth, operative in the daily life 
of the people. 

The old definition of university extension, that it is " carrying the 
university to the people," was striking and popular, but it has come 
less and less to be even fairly accurate. The public discussion and 
information service, for example, is not primarily a projection of 
debate or library information as it is found on the campus; but it 
is rather a peculiar service which involves compilation of data se- 
cured from all available sources, the preparation of the data in a 
form suited to wide public use, and the constant reshaping of the 
material to meet the demand and the needs of the daily inquiries that 
come from city, town, and rural district. These inquiries arise from 



PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 7 

spontaneous discussion in the local communities as well as from the 
activities of the university in promoting public discussion through- 
out the State. The service involves utilization of resources and 
methods distinctly nonacademic, methods which are not commonly 
employed regularly on the campus or within the university walls. 

Limited activities of bureaus. — The fundamental purpose of gen- 
eral university extension, that of disseminating information and aid- 
ing in the application of knowledge, is served by the activities of the 
bureaus of public discussion and information. Briefly, these activi- 
ties may be listed as follows : 

1. Preparing study outlines on welfare subjects and current topics. 

2. Compiling and lending package libraries on public questions. 

3. Preparing bibliographies and briefs on debatable subjects. 

4. Publishing informational bulletins with guides for the study of 
specific questions of connnunity interest. 

5. Organizing, directing, and assisting interscholastic debating and 
discussion societies and leagues. 

6. Assisting civic clubs, chambers of commerce, forums, com- 
munity centers, parent-teacher associations, women's clubs, and other 
organizations in their discussions of community problems. 

7. Supplying information on miscellaneous problems in response 
to requests by mail. 

8. Furnishing information in special fields of public interest, such 
as public health, municipal problems, child welfare. 

It is evident that these activities are not confined primarily to the 
promotion of public discussion, and that some of them have only a re- 
mote bearing on the problem of developing sound public opinion. It 
is equally evident that the activities usually undertaken by the types 
of university extension bureaus under consideration in this bulletin 
are not inclusive of all the kinds of work done by the university ex- 
tension division in the promotion of public discussion or in the dis- 
semination of information. 

Commumti/ institutes. — For instance, the organization of commu- 
nity institutes lies outside the scope of these bureaus ; such institutes 
are conducted by a growing number of universities for the purpose of 
assisting the people of small communities to understand and cope 
effectively with common problems, such as sanitation, housing, child 
welfare, public recreation. The community institute,^ a program of 
conferences, round tables, lectures, demonstrations, exhibits, motion 
pictures, and entertainments, is a device which, while providing many 
features similar to those of a Chautauqua, also gives opportunity for 
actual discussion on the part of members of local community groups 
themselves; that is, the people at the institutes do not merely listen 

' Such institutes have been conducted in Colorado, Indiana, Kansas, North Carolina, 
North Dakota, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin. 



8 PUBLIC DISCTJSSIOlSr AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 

to the lectures and absorb information and advice but they participate 
in the programs, offer their suggestions in conference, sit in committee 
to act on common measures, and furnish the elements of common 
counsel. 

Lectures. — There are other services of university extension not 
included in public discussion service but having importance in 
stimulating public opinion. The lecture service, of course is of con- 
siderable value, especially when university lecturers speak on timely 
topics before representative community gatherings. The stereopti- 
con-slide service of the extension division of California has provided 
monthly up-to-date summaries of significant events ; other extension 
divisions lend sets of lantern slides for similar purposes. 

Community studies: — A distinct kind of information service has 
been begun in connection with the University of North Carolina. 
Social and economic studies of different counties are made and pub- 
lished by men whose homes are in the county, with the assistance of 
university students and professors. The studies are evidence of a 
community consciousness which attempts to relate investigation, 
knowledge, and the spirit of education to immediate practical service 
in attacking community problems. They serve as a basis for public 
discussion and intelligent action. 

Netos letters. — A number of university extension divisions issue 
weekly news letters or clip sheets and news leaflets which are de- 
signed to furnish to the press and to individuals information on all 
topics affecting the welfare of the State. The publication and dis- 
tribution of general and special informational bulletins is common 
to all extension divisions. 

Municipal reference bureaus. — One of the most distinctive specific 
activities related to the public discussion and general information 
service, but not usually administered by the same bureau of the ex- 
tension division, is that of municipal reference. Bureaus of munici- 
pal reference have been established in the universities of California, 
Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North 
Carolina, Oklahoma, Washington, and Wisconsin. Other States, 
though they do not have regidarly established bureaus in their ex- 
tension divisions, nevertheless give considerable assistance to munici- 
palities. This is the case in Arkansas, Indiana, North Dakota, Ore- 
gon, and also in still other States where the community institute is 
utilized as a vehicle for giving information to the public on municipal 
problems. The Indiana University extension division has employed 
specialists in municipal sanitation, city milk supply, city forestry, 
home grounds improvement, gardening, and other problems. 

The activities of the municipal reference bureaus are generally 
allied with those of a State municipal league, for which the director 



PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 9 

of the university bureau acts as secretary. In some cases the league 
issues a periodical publication of which the secretary is editor. 
Usually the leagues insure the holding of regular conferences of 
municipal officials for the discussion of common problems. 

Technical information. — The field of the municipal reference 
bureau is wide, since it includes not only technical problems of city 
administration, but also general problems of neighborhood, town, 
and city, such as the relations between commercial and farming in- 
terests, the development of consolidated school systems, the promo- 
tion of public health and recreation. The extent of the bureaus' 
usefulness in the more technical field of town and city government is 
indicated by figures taken from the report of the director of the ex- 
tension division of the University of Wisconsin for the years 1916- 
1918. 

During this period 1,494 specific requests for information upon 
about 400 different subjects were received, of which 273 requests 
were from cities outside of the State. Of these requests, 1,141 came 
from city and village officials. They came from 235 cities and 
villages, of which 160 were in Wisconsin, this number including all 
the cities in the State except six. The service is mutual, the various 
cities reciprocating by supplying the bureau with reports, copies 
of ordinances, and other data. From its experience with these re- 
quests the bureau adopted the practice of preparing reports and 
sending out information w^hich there was reason to believe would be 
valuable to the cities of the State. Seventeen of these special re- 
ports are mentioned in the director's report for 1916-1918 on such 
subjects as the following: 

Assessed valuations, tax levies, and License fees. 

tax I'ates. Milk ordinances. 

Billboard regulations. Municipal coal yards. 

Censorship of moving pictures. School administration buildings. 

Comparative salaries of city officials. Visiting nurses. 

Bulletins on similar subjects published in other States are : 

California The single tax. 

Colorado Municipal water supplies of Colorado. 

Indiana What curb markets may be expected to accomplish. 

Cooperative retail delivery. 

Town and city beautification. 
Iowa Electric power transmission in Iowa. 

Street lighting. 

Rate making for public utilities. 

Municipal accounting. 

Waterworks statistics: 

Oklahoma The city manager plan. 

Oregon Cooperation of town and country, 

Texas Beautification of home grounds. 

134.585°— 20 2 



10 PUBLIC DISCUSSION AHD UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 

The reports of the proceedings of the Oklahoma Municipal League, 
published by the extension division, also contain a number of articles 
on similar subjects. 

Undoubtedly the municipal reference bureaus of the universities 
offer large possibilities of development. They can provide assistance 
not only in solving the technical problems which face municipal offi- 
cials, but in enlarging the knowledge of the citizens whose cooperation 
is necessary in the work of attacking both the general and technical 
difficulties of town and city government. The taxpayers and voters 
require new sources of information about community development, 
about the tax rates, the water supply, building regulations, city 
planning, ordinance codes, housing; they want an opportunity to 
learn of the best practices of municipal government and to have a 
sound basis for discussion of the problems that confront the com- 
munity, so that they may have an intelligent check on the adminis- 
tration and participate in the common counsel of the citizenship. 

UNIVERSITY SERVICE AND PUBLIC OPINION. 

Sources of public opinion. — Why do universities develop informa- 
tion services like that of the reference bureaus? And why do they 
endeavor to promote public discussion through lectures, package 
libraries, community institutes, and other methods? The reason is 
evident in the growing conviction that the sources or springs of 
public information on current events and important common prob- 
lems are not what they should be. The " broad avenues leading to 
public opinion " are congested and frequently lead astray. The daily 
newspaper has not proved as reliable and satisfactory a purveyor 
of news as it might be, nor is it an adequate reporter of opinion of 
individual statesmen or publicists. It is not a satisfactory gauge ot 
general opinion. A poll of the newspaper editorials at any one 
time is not by any means a sure index of what the people are think- 
ing on a public policy. 

The press. — Hamilton Holt once summed up the two most im- 
portant services of the press : 

First, to give reliable and comt)]ete information about any event at the time 
when such information is needed as a basis of opinion and action. Second, to 
present to every reader competent discussion of pending questions from dif- 
ferent points of view. The ordinary commercial press does not perform ade- 
quately either of these social functions and it never can, because it does not 
" pay " to be as thorough or impartial as the ideal paper should be.* 

Mr. M. S. Ravage says,^ " We will have to abandon our deep- 
rooted notion that public opinion is formed by the editorial column 
and the movie sermon." 

1 First National Newspaper Conference, Madison, Wis., 1912. Proceedings, Bull. Univ. 
Wis., Gen. Series No. 386. 

2 New Republic, July 16, 1919. 



PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 11 

Can we rely on the newspaper as a competent servant of public 
opinion ? Are there reall}^ independent newspapers ? Do the partisan 
papers follow consistent policies ? What effect has the news-gather- 
ing syndicate on the validity of news? What is the significance of 
the fact that the large daily paper requires large capital and great 
advertising revenues? As a result of the tendency of thoughtful 
persons to ask these questions and because of widespread conviction 
as to the inadequacy of the daily newspaper, there is a growing de- 
mand for additional methods of disseminating information. 

But the press as a whole does not satisfy the demand. All sorts 
of papers appear and disappear; in the aggregate they increase in 
number year after year. Weeklies, monthlies, quarterlies, trade 
Journals, labor-unio'n papers, learned journals, house organs, propa- 
ganda magazines, professional journals, every imaginable kind of 
periodical or semi-periodical floods the news stands. 

Tons and tons of printed matter are distributed — ^books, pamph- 
lets, circulars, bulletins, advertisements, dodgers, letters, labels, leaf- 
lets, tracts, tables, charts, and cartoons; and all kinds of typed and 
multigraphed devices are used for getting facts, argument, and 
opinion to the public. Probably no one would suggest that the 
volume of printed matter is too small; there are many who arbi- 
trarily believe the volume too great; many others suggest various 
methods of increasing the volume by the addition of selective guides 
to lessen the waste; but few are satisfied that out of the welter of 
the press adequate information is available to the mass of people or 
even to the discriminating few who know how to make use of the 
printed stream. 

Pictures. — The pictured information is disappointing. Despite 
the wonderful development of the photograph, the lithograph, the 
stereograph, the lantern slide, and the motion picture, their applica- 
tion to the work of conveying essential information, of giving news, 
fails to satisfy. They fall short of dignity, of fullness, of relevance, 
even of authority (for trick photography may lie more outrageously 
than statistics). No doubt the motion picture as a news agency, as an 
instrument of instruction and a conveyor of information on public 
policies and community problems, is in its infancy; nevertheless 
there will always be serious limitation to its effectiveness as a device 
for the enlightenment of public opinion. 

The platform: — The pulpit, the stage, and the platform, too, are 
all insufficient to the tremendous task of providing the public with 
accurate neAvs, reliable opinion, scientific information. Even such 
hopeful institutions or ventures as the Chautauqua, the forum, the 
community center, the lyceum, the institute, or such devices as the 
fair, the exposition, the traveling exhibit, the convention, conference, 
mass meeting, and innumerable commercial or semipublic services 



12 PUBLIC DISCUSSIOIsr AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 

fail in the aggregate and particularly to meet the needs for accurate 
and comprehensive sources of information. 

Governmental information service. — Some governmental bodies have 
developed important services which disseminate information in spe- 
cial fields of commerce and industry ; others serve certain professions ; 
and some have undertaken various kinds of educational extension 
in such fields as agriculture, farm management, rural economics, 
home economics, child welfare, public health, even community organi- 
zation. During the war there were several governmental agencies 
which devoted a large share of their energy and resources to exten- 
sive information service which might be legitimately described as 
propaganda. The Committee on Public Information, the Council 
of National Defense, the State council of defeifse, are examples of 
governmental bodies working in the field of public opinion ; they had 
much to do with the development of public understanding of national 
policies; they worked out elaborate methods of gettings facts and 
opinions to the people everywhere; they directly shaped opinion in 
certain definite directions and dealt not only with war-time propa- 
ganda but also with common problems of State and community, 
problems which only remotely had a bearing on the war emergency. 
Although these opinion-creating agencies were highly successful in 
achieving their special aim, they hardly secured the confidence of 
the public as permanent instruments of educational extension. As 
for the old established Federal bureaus and departments, their in- 
formation service is restricted and only incidentally touches the cur- 
rent public problems of social and economic policies and the facts 
concerning social and industrial movements and tendencies. Even 
the office of the Superintendent of Documents, though it has great 
quantities of printed information on many questions vital to public 
opinion and policy, can not in the nature of the case function dynami- 
cally as a servant of public opinion or distributor of information 
remarkably serviceable as a basis of public opinion. 

In slightly different case are the State boards of education, health, 
and charities, the library commissions, and the like. Many of them 
do excellent work in educational extension. The handicap to their 
more effective participation in " educating the public " is chiefly two- 
fold ; they have primarily only administrative functions, frequently 
with prejudicial police power, and they lack institutional resources 
of sufficiently broad type. 

Semipublic agencies. — From the war there have sprung, up enor- 
mously expanded semipublic organizations, which long after the 
signing of the armistice are campaigning vigorously to instruct the 
people, to spread knowledge, to influence national and community poli- 
cies. But their efforts are hobbled by the original purposes for which 
they were established; their expanded energies will undoubtedly 



PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 13 

eventually be tethered in most particulars to those activities for 
which the organization primarily stood. It is hard to predict just 
what the future program will be of the War Camp Community Serv- 
ice, the Red Cross, the Y. M. C. A., the educational foundations, the 
propaganda leagues, voluntary associations, and other adventitiously 
developed organizations, but there is little prospect that any of them 
will serve permanently as active agents of public opinion in other 
than restricted fields. 

Conceding the supreme importance of a sane, informed public 
opinion in a democratic society, leaders of thought and action every- 
where are seeking to meet the problem of providing systematically 
for its sound development and adequate expression. Prof. Ross ex- 
presses the prevailing judgment, " The remedy for the abuses of pub- 
lic opinion is not to discredit it but to instruct it." 

Religious leaders are concerned about the problem of sound public 
opinion. Several church bodies, like the League for Social and 
Industrial Democracy in the Episcopal Church and the Department 
of Evangelism and Social Service of the Methodist Church, have 
issued statements and resolutions urging the necessity of public 
discussion of social problems and have definitely sponsored such 
movements as the community center to foster the dissemination of 
information and promote free discussion. 

Organized labor in the United States is vitally interested in free 
public discussion. Labor leaders who have come into contact with 
university extension invariably are interested in the possibilities of 
service to the workers, for the well-known labor dictum of " equality 
of opportunity " naturally includes a demand for equal opportunity 
in education. 

The Atlantic City convention of the American Federation of Labor 
adopted in June, 1919, a " Program of Education," which in many 
respects is similar to that of the Labor Party in England. More 
than a year before that the British Labor Party adopted a program 
formulated by a subcommittee on education which- — 

called for more human warmth in politics, less apathetic acquiescence in the 
miseries that poison the wellsprings of life, for increased study, for the scien- 
tific Investigation of each succeeding social and economic problem and for a 
much more rapid dissemination among the whole people of all the science that 
exists. 

The American program contained 25 provisions, among which were 
the following: 

There should be a wider use of the school plant, securing increased returns 
to the community through additional civic, social, and educational services to 
both adults and children. 

Public forums should be established in every school where there is sufficient 
demand, iinder the direction of the superintendent of schools, working in coop- 
eration with advisory committees representing the various elements in the 
community. 



14 PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 

In any democracy tlie primary requirement is a citizenship educated to 
straiglitforward logical thinking, based on facts established by carefully sifted 
evidence. The schools can not develop this essential fiber if the pupils are 
carefully shielded from knowledge of the topics that men and vv^omeu think 
about. Secondary only to a citizen's ability to do his own thinking is his 
ability to make his influence felt in his group and community by effectively 
presenting his views to his fellows and meeting opposition in a spirit of toler- 
ance. This power of effective self-expression and the habits of tolerance and 
of intellectual fairness toward opponents can not be formed without the dis- 
cussion of topics that give opportunity for their exercise. Therefore, in order 
to enable the schools to perform one of their chief functions, preparation for 
active citizenship, the pupil should be encouraged to discuss under intelligent 
supervision current events and the problems of citizenship. 

The program contains even stronger statements of the necessity 
for freedom of public discussion and insists especially on the rights 
of teachers in this connection. 

An English soldier's opinion. — English opinion has had consid- 
erable influence in this country, but the British practice in educa- 
tional reform and particularly in university extension is not yet 
widely known. British labor groups, the cooperatives especially, 
have through the Workers Educational Association established on 
a large scale a working application of the prevailing opinion that 
the mass of the people should have increased service, from the uni- 
versities. " Thinking in fellowship " is the kind of education which 
it is the purpose of university extension to assist and organize. Such 
is the conclusion, in an Address from a Soldier to Soldiers, of an 
Englishman speaking to his returned comrades concerning the 
Workers Educational Association and its cooperative work with the 
English universities. 

Whatever may be the ultimate effect of the European war, one effect is cer- 
tain : It will cause millions of men to thinh. They will think about questions 
of government and politics, even if they never thought seriously about them 
before. * * * Never again will the mass of people be able to say, " These 
things are the business of the politician. They do not concern us." Least of 
all will the soldier be willing or able to say so. * * * He is a citizen in a 
democratic community. He can not exercise his rights or discharge his responsi- 
bilities as a citizen unless he develop his own mind in conjunction with his 
fellows. * * * If he is to play his part in the problems of industry, govern- 
ment, and social life * * * he must unite with his fellows to think about 
them. 

University extension authorities in the United States without ex- 
ception recognize that public discussion is essential to the stability 
and progress of a democratic society. Probably no single group of 
men and women realize more keenly the deficiencies of press, plat- 
form, pulpit, and other public and private agencies for the diffusion 
of information. 

Pii/rpose of discussion. — Directors of university extension divisions 
in the States express their appreciation of the necessity of assisting in 
the promotion of public discussion. "A university, the greatest disin- 



PUBLIC DISCUSSION AISTD UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 15 

terested institution for research and dissemination of truth, must play 
a part in the instruction of public opinion." Some directors believe 
that the situation is acute : " The demand for knowledge, for reli- 
able information on current events and community policies, is insist- 
ent ; public opinion must be free, and it must have live facts to give 
value to its freedom." Louis R. Wilson, director of extension in the 
University of North Carolina, writes, " Public discussion is vitally 
necessary in a democratic society. I think it would be helpful for the 
extension bureaus directly to promote public discussion among 
adults." Other directors believe, too, that the university should ac- 
tively organize adult discussion, not merely assist in its promotion. 
The majority, how^ever, take the position of Director J. C. Tjaden, 
of North Dakota, " I think it best to remain in a position of serving 
rather than promoting. Let the people who are interested do the pro- 
moting, and the university be prepared to furnish the material. Why 
not let imiversity stand for universal access to information ? " " Get 
behind the open forum idea ; but organization should come from the 
community, not from the university," says Director R. E. Price, of 
Minnesota. 

Edward S. Maclin, of the University of Tennessee, sums up the gen- 
eral attitude of the majority of university extension authorities in 
the statement that " We can not have too much orderly public dis- 
cussion in a democratic society. There is not enough discussion now." 
Miss H. N. Bircholdt, chief of the bureau of public discussion of In- 
diana LTniversity, quotes Dr. Yarros, " Democracy is government by 
discussion." 

Methods of disciMSsion service. — It is clear from this preliminary 
statement that the general university extension divisions, in attempt- 
ing to meet the needs for public-discussion service, assist the people of 
the States through a variety of activities such as the lecture service, 
the community institute, municipal reference, and the publication of 
bulletins on national and community problems. In addition practi- 
cally all universities, though many of them do not advertise the 
service, offer to take care of any requests for information which may 
come to them on almost any subject. In practice such information 
service works satisfactorily as a whole. In those universities where 
there is no separately organized extension division the requests for 
information are not numerous and can be readily handled from the 
president's office or by reference to the general librarian and to pro- 
fessors of appropriate departments. 

The extension divisions which have bureaus of public discussion 
offer a very comprehensive information service which provides par- 
ticularly for furnishing information on topics of current interest. 
They serve a wide clientele, and consequently have found it necessary 
to adopt varied methods. Of these methods, the most highly de- 



16 PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 

veloped are the package library, the club-study course, and the or- 
ganization of public discussion leagues. 

THE PACKAGE LIBRARY SERVICE. 

The " package library " is a simple device for bringing facts and 
opinions quickly to the person who wants to know. It is information 
selected by specialists and done up in a convenient packet for mailing 
by parcel post to the citizens who ask for it. The material is usually 
printed matter collected from a variety of sources. The packages are 
neat bundles of pamphlets, .bulletins, clippings from articles in cur- 
rent magazines, typed excerpts from manuscripts, and other informa- 
tional material on subjects or questions of interest to the public. 
Each package contains selected material which is up to date, compre- 
hensive, and authoritive, all centered about one subject of current 
interest; for example, the League of Nations, Government control 
of railroads, universal military service, training for citizenship. 

Selected subjects. — The package library subjects are selected, usu- 
ally limited to two or three hundred in number; new subjects are 
added as public attention turns in different directions. If the sub- 
ject of a package library is controversial, debatable, the material 
put into the bundle is chosen carefully from as many sources as 
possible, so as to present the best available opinions and pertinent 
facts on both sides of the question. The theory is that the balanced 
arguments and data will give the reader a chance to pursue his in- 
quiry from aiiy angle, a chance for him to weigh some of the merits 
of several points of view. The opportunity should result in the in- 
terest that comes from a challenge to one's judgment, an interest 
that will lead to further study and discussion of the question. 

Facts for everyhody. — Young persons and old persons in the small- 
est village or the most remote country district want to know what 
is going on in the world. City dwellers want selected, reliable in- 
formation at hand in their own homes ; they want to know with 
some assurance what is the substance and direction of the news and 
they wish to get the meat of the problems that concern the com- 
munity. Especially do all intelligent persons want to know what 
other people are thinking about, to compare their modest opinions 
with the opinions of other men and women. They wish to check 
their conclusions with the advice and suggestion of educators, states- 
men, and specialists who are supposed to be the best authorities on 
the great questions of the day. 

To make this exchange of opinion free and ready, and to promote 
discussion and general understanding of the common problems of 
the State and Nation, scarcely a better device could be found than 
the package library. It takes some of the resources of information 
and knowledge available in the great institutions of learning, the 



PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 17 

universities, to the people, to anybody who desires facts that are 
alive in the thoughts of men and women everywhere. 

The package library is lent to individuals or organizations in the 
State, even to children in the schools. Usually, however, school chil- 
dren obtain the loans through their teacher or the local librarian, 
who writes to the university for the service. The borrower pays the 
postage required to return the package after the expiration of the 
loan period, from one to three weeks, or when he has -finished using 
the material. Some universities do not lend their package libraries 
outside the State. However, most of them make an exception to the 
rule, especially when the borrower lives in a State where the uni- 
versity does not conduct a package library service. 

Make-up. — The contents of a single package library do not long 
remain the same; old material is taken out and new material added 
from month to month. A package library on military training in 
schools, prepared by the University of Texas in 1918, contained 14 
pieces. Of these, 3 were bulletins from the United States Bureau of 
Education, the National Education Association, and Indiana Uni- 
versity; 1 was a clipping from the Congressional Record, 1 a re- 
port of a State commission; others were pamphlets from national 
associations for and against military training; and the rest were 
excerpts from current magazines. Additional pieces were added as 
they came to the office, especially clippings from periodicals. The 
number of pieces in a package library varies with the subject and 
with the resources of the university bureau. Wisconsin's packages 
average about 40 pieces. 

Library subjects. — The Texas bureau in 1918 had package libraries 
made up on approximately 400 subjects. About 150 were added in 
1919. Missouri had 300, North Carolina had 150, Indiana 300, Wis- 
consin over 1,000 subjects represented in their package-library collec- 
tions. The numbers suggest that the subjects are limited by the 
demand on the part of the public and by the facilities at command 
of the bureau. If only a few inquiries come to the office on co'tn- 
rrmnity singing^ the bureau is not likely to prepare a special package 
library on that subject unless it happens to have considerable mate- 
rial available or easily accessible. Some bureaus prepare carefully 
selected lists of subjects and announce that package material will be 
furnished only on these and not on any subjects the inquirer may 
happen to desire. When the bureau receives a request for a package 
library on a subject not in the list, the reply furnishes what informa- 
tion is available in the form of bulletins or other printed matter and 
calls attention to the subjects for which package libraries are already 
prepared. Texas publishes such a list, with the subjects arranged in 
alphabetical order, indicating with an asterisk the subjects which are 
134585°— 20 3 



18 



PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 



commonly debatable. Indiana prints a circular, revised frequently, 
"which usually groups the package-library subjects under the follow- 
ing headings: 

Civic improvement. Labor questions. 

Child welfare. Government. 

Public health. Business questions. 

Recreation. Miscellaneous. 

Education. Debatable questions. 

The circular for 1919 gives the following list of subjects under de- 
batable questions: 



Agriculture credit. 

Arbitration. 

Capital punishment. 

Chinese exclusion. 

City manager plan. 

Coeducation. 

Commission government. 

Compulsory education. 

Corporation tax. 

County government. 

Educational qualification for suf- 
frage. 

Employers' liability. 

Government ownership of railroads. 

Government ownership of telephone 
and telegraph. 

Guarantee of bank deposits. 

Imperialism. 

Income tax. 

Increased armament. 

Initiative and referendum. 

Land question. 

Liquor problem. 

Merchant marine. 



Mexico. 

Military service, compulsory. 
Military training in schools. 
Monroe doctrine. 
Municipal home rule. 
Municipal ownership of public utili- 
ties. 
Old-age pensions. 
Philippines. 
Presidential term. 
Primaries. 
Race problems. 
Recall of judges. 
Recall of judicial decisions. 
Recall of officers. 
Restriction of immigration. 
Roads. 

Rural schools, consolidation. 
Ship subsidy (merchant marine). 
Short ballot. 
Single tax. 
Strikes. 

United States foreign policy. 
Woman suffrage. 



Many subjects besides these are offered by the different univer- 
sities. There is a considerable exchange of package-library material 
between bureaus and some cooperation in the choosing of subjects, 
especially for State-wide debates. 

Universities offering libraries. — Package libraries on topics of cur- 
rent public interest may be obtained from the following universities. 
Borrowers should address the Director of the Extension Division : 



University of Arizona, Tucson. 
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. 
University of Kansas, Lawrence. 
University of Kentucky, Lexington. 
University of Missouri, Columbia. 
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. 
University of Montana, Missoula. 
University of New Mexico, Albu- 
querque. 



University of North Dakota, Grand 
Forks. 

University of Oklahoma, Norman. 

University of Pittsburgh, Pitts- 
burgh. 

University of Texas, Austin. 

University of Washington,* Seattle, 

University of Wisconsin, Madison. 

Indiana University, Bioomington, 



1 Temporarily discontinued. 



PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 



19 



Other universities provide, either directly or through cooperation 
with library commissions, an information service which accom- 
plishes some of the purposes of package library bureaus. 



University of California, Berkeley. 
University of Georgia, Atliens. 
University of Idatio, Moscow. 
University of Iowa, Iowa City. 
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. 
University of Nebraska, Lincoln. 
University of North Carolina, Chapel 
Hill. 



University of Oregon, Eugene. 

University of South Dakota, Ver- 
milion. 

University of Tennessee, Knoxville. 

University of Utah, Salt Lake City. 

University of Virginia, Charlottesville. 

University of West Virginia, Morgan- 
town. 



Department of University Extension, Boston, Mass. 
Director of Extension, Rutgers College, New Brunswick, N. J. 
Director of General Extension, Maryland State College, College Park, Md. 
Educational Extension Division and State Librai-y of the University of 
the State of New York, Albany, N. Y. 

Character of demand. — Study of the demand for package libraries 
in diflFerent periods reveals that the service is an adaptable one. In 
the period from 1914 to 1919 many package libraries were prepared 
and lent on subjects related to the war. Every university acted as 
a distributing agency for information on the problems of the war. 
The public discussion bureaus without exception distributed quan- 
tities of printed matter. Several bureaus announced that they were 
prepared to answer requests for information on almost any phase 
of the war. The biennial report of the extension division of the 
University of Wisconsin states that the major interest in the package 
library was a war interest: "Few packages were lent during the 
biennium which did not bear directly or indirectly on the World 
War.'' 

Extent of service. — The report lists some of the subjects and the 
number of package libraries lent to show the shift in demand. 

Package lihraries sent out by the extension division of the University of 

Wisconsin. 





Subjects. 


1 
1914-1916 


1916-1918 






204 


412 


World War 




98 


338 






i 94 


208 






252 


207 


Red Cross 




36 


180 






I 15 


119 






i 106 


105 






65 


93 






1 54 


93 






! 184 


86 







20 PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVEESITY EXTENSION. 

Comparison of the demand for six years. 

Subjects. 



1909 


1910 


1911 


1912 


1913 


30 


84 


217 


133 


143 


41 


102 


99 


103 


48 


31 


65 


50 


64 


79 


26 


51 


41 


57 


37 


17 


53 


56 


36 


47 


19 


13 


52 


65 


34 


13 


16 


12 


29 


17 


30 


44 


16 


6 


4 


13 


11 


14 


26 


15 



1914 



Woman suffrage 

Commission government 

Immigration 

Parcel post 

Popular election 

Imtiative, referendum. . . 

Capital punishment 

Postal savings 

Municipal ownership 



143 

60 

121 

7 

5 

30 

26 

1 

18 



The following table classifies the subjects of the packages lent by 
the Texas bureau in 1918-19 : 

Political and social questions 1, 232 

Education 725 

History (mostly of the war) 547 

Agriculture and home economics 196 

Science and useful arts 145 

Literature 100 

Fine arts 88 

Religion and philosophy 23 

The extent of the demand for package libraries varies considerably 
in different States and is chiefly conditioned by the degree to which 
the service is known. Practically none of the bureaus advertise, as 
the word is ordinarily understood. The reasons for this are many, 
but the chief one is that extensive advertising would result in an 
overwhelming call for service. Every bureau reports that it makes 
little special effort to acquaint the public with the service. Many 
directors state, "We now have more mail than we can handle as 
efficiently as we would wish." The universities receive many requests 
for packages from persons in other States, though they are never 
solicited. Several bureaus referred all their out-of- State inquiries 
to Washington, while the national Division of Educational Exten- 
sion was in existence during the first half of 1919. The national 
division furnished information on current questions in response to 
such referred requests. They numbered over a thousand in the two 
months after the clearing-house arrangement was made. 

Complete data on the number of package libraries circulated by all 
the universities are not available. The first column of the following 
table gives approximately the number of requests which were met by 
supplying packages, involving frequently the relending of the same 
libraries. 



PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 21 

Package libraries lent by nine extension divisions, July 1, 1918, to May 1, 1919. 



Extension division. 


Number of 

packages 

lent. 


Estimated 
number of 
borrowers. 




1,600 
1,270 
1,944 
5,137 
3,000 
1,115 
3,219 
3,000 
6,275 


5,000 


Colorado . . . 


1,750 


Indiana 


3,000 


Kansas 


50,000 


Michigan 


(') 


Missouri . 


5.000 


Nortla Carolina 


(') 


Texas. 


3,445 


Wisconsin 


69, 571 







1 No report. 

Variation in use. — From this table it is evident that there is con- 
siderable variety in the kind of use to which the libraries are put. 
Sometimes a single package is borrowed over and over again, that 
is, it is used by a large number of persons. For instance, a package 
library on municipal markets was sent to a city engineer, and by 
him it was lent to members of the city council and to officers of the 
local chamber of commerce. A member of a civic club borrows a 
package library on school feeding, and the various pieces of printed 
matter are distributed among the group for study. A civics teacher 
in the high school borrows a library on municipal government and 
assigns different phases of the topic to the students in her classes. 
Thus a single packet may be used by 10 or more different individuals, 
and it is difficult to determine exactly how extensively the material 
in a package library collection is made use of within a year. 

Following is a rough classification of the various uses made of the 
packages lent by Texas in 1918 : 



Addresses 

Civic work 

Camp fire and scouts. 
Debates 



28 

51 

. 23 

834 

School work 1,682 

Various personal uses 101 

Women's clubs 337 

The following table indicates how the package libraries were used 
in Wisconsin, 1912 to 1913: 

Package libraries in Wisconsin. 1012-13. 



Used by— 


Number. 


Number of 
packages. 




305 
340 
93 

93 


736 




1,903 






177 






182 










1 Articles, business, correspondence study, olBcials, personal information, public addresses. 



22 



PUBLIC DISCUSSION Al^TD Ul^IVERSITY EXTEIJ^SIOIS'. 



The following is a comparison of the uses made of libraries in Wis- 
consin over a longer period of time : 





Use made of libraries in Wisconsin. 








Used by— 




1912-1914 


Number of packages 
used. 




1914-1916 


1917-18 1 




1,781 

4,328 

461 


3,644 

5, 948 
1,544 


1,527 
3,616 


Educational institutions 


Miscellaneous 


1,520 












6,570 


11, 136 


6,663 



1 One year. 

Use hy adults. — Since the package library has usually been de- 
veloped first in connection with high-school debating, only gradually 
has it been made use of by adults. At present the average percentage 
of adults borrowing libraries is not much higher than 10 per cent. 
In some States it is estimated as high as 30 per cent. Oklahoma re- 
ports that a large part of its service has been to commercial and 
civic clubs, agricultural associations, and political organizations. 
However, Oklahoma furnishes bulletins and other printed matter 
rather than the standard package library. Arkansas and Indiana 
are increasing their service to mature persons. Kansas also has a 
large adult clientele, particularly the women in rural districts. 

To begin a package library service in an extension division does 
not require a large initial expense, especially if it is developed con- 
servatively, as has been the case with most of the established bureaus. 

Organizing package library service. — A valuable service can be 
rendered by a single competent director, providing he is able to make 
use of the ordinary resources of the university and enlists the aid of 
the members of the faculty. Only a small budget is required. In 
some cases package library service is undertaken by the general uni- 
versity librarian under the supervision of the director of the exten- 
sion division. In such a case at first all that is necessary is some 
money for the purchase of extra copies of current periodicals and 
for the payment of a special librarian. 

But it is the general opinion that the package library work should 
belong primarily to the extension division and should not be an 
appendage of the library, on the same theory that makes it advisable 
not to have every school and department of the university conduct 
its own extension activities out in the State. Indiana University 
first began package library service through the general library. 
When the extension division was reorganized in 1914, a definite 
budget was set aside and the general librar}^ was relieved of the 
work. The Bureau of Public Discussion began with a budget of 
approximately $3,000. Miss Harriet N. Bircholt, now chief of the 



PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 



23 



bureau, has submitted the foUowmg two budgets based on the 
experience of Indiana. They are presented here to show that a 
university can introduce or expand the package library service with 
little difficulty, since a large budget is not necessary, and also because 
the aims and methods may be comparatively definite and simple. 
The following paragraph is a copy of a statement in a printed circu- 
lar of the Indiana bureau : 

The aim of the Bureau of Public Discussion is to stimulate intelligent dis- 
cussion of current, social, political, and economic questions. With this end in 
view, the bureau engages in the following activities : It assists debating socie- 
ties, civic discussion clubs, and literary clubs with suggestions as to organi- 
zation and method of procedure. It recommends suitable topics for debates, 
discussions, themes, and orations; it provides suggestions for club programs; 
and it supplies bibliographies on the topics suggested. It lends package libraries 
on present-day questions. It answers inquiries for general information. 

Budget for a bureau of public discussioit. 



Items. 



Salaries: 

Chief 

Assistant 

Part-time assistant 

Equipment (file cases, desks) 

Supplies (clipping materials, cards, folders) 

Magazines (by subscription and purchase) 

Pamphlets (by purchase singly and in quantity). 

Books (guides, atlas reference books) 

Printing (circulars, bulletins, forms, advertising). 

Stationery 

Extra help 

Contingency 



Total. 




5,000 



Items of SS,000 budget— The smaller budget, $3,000, represents 
actual expenditures involved in establishing a package-library serv- 
ice. A competent head of the bureau may sometimes be found for 
the comparatively small salary of $1,200, but it is clear that such a 
person should work under close supervision of the director of ex- 
tension, or of the head of a social-science department, and have 
considerable assistance from the faculty. However, the service 
should be independent and free to meet its own problems unham- 
pered by academic methods, which are not serviceable for the best 
work in university extension. 

The first year it is not necessary to subscribe for many periodicals. 
There are always many copies available in a university community. 
Faculty clubs frequently give their accumulated supply regularly 
to the package-library service. Some publishing houses will furnish 
quantities free. There are great quantities of pamphlet material 
obtainable free from many sources, from national societies, educa- 
tional foundations, and other associations. The first year the pack- 
age-library bureau can use the reference guides of the general library 



24 PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 

of the university. It is, however, advisable to have a complete set 
of guides and reference books in the bureau library as soon as pos- 
sible, because experience has proved that a considerable percentage 
of inquiries that come to extension divisions can be answered easily 
by referring to standard publications, and promptness is very de- 
sirable. A special library facilitates prompt response to inquiry. 
The bureau should have a definite understanding with the general 
library of the university and with the State library or library com- 
mission. The usual arrangement is for the bureau to confine its 
work to providing package libraries made up of bulletins, pamphlets, 
documents, clippings, and fugitive material on current public ques- 
tions for persons who are not resident students of the university; 
the university library lends books and other materials primarily 
to the faculty and resident students; the State library or commis- 
sion confines its work to lending books in traveling libraries. 

The $5y000 budget. — The larger budget is analyzed on the same 
basis as the smaller — that is, it represents expenditures involved in 
establishing a bureau of public discussion. With the larger sum 
available, it is advisable to put more money into salaries, because once 
a minimum equipment is secured the quality of the service improves 
most readily in proportion to the strength and ability of the staff of 
workers. In the larger budget the amounts allotted to the purchase 
of magazines, pamphlets, and books are nearly four times as great 
as in the smaller budget. The larger proportional expenditure for 
these items makes possible a saving in the time and energy of the 
members of the staff, who otherwise would have to do more work 
seeking material and consulting reference books outside of the bureau 
library. 

GENERAL INFORMATION SERVICE. 

Ciwrent topics. — The package library is a characteristic feature of 
the more highly developed bureaus of public discussion and is used 
as a convenient method of answering inquiries for information, 
especially on current topics. But these bureaus, or rather the general 
extension divisions of which they are a part, receive many calls for 
information on subjects which have not been made up in packages. 
The following bureaus report the percentage of inquiries they re- 
ceive on questions of current public interest and on miscellaneous 
subjects not usually designated as current topics: 

Percentage of inquiries on current topics. 

Per cent- 
Oregon 50 

North Carolina 75 

Indiana 90 

Texas 50 

Oklahoma 75 

Missouri 75 



PUBLIC DISCUSSION" AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 25 

Not only is there a substantial percentage of inquiries on miscel- 
laneous topics that have to be answered by references, special letters, 
bulletins, and other printed matter not incorporated in package 
libraries, but many of the requests for information on current topics 
have to be answered by various methods suited to the individual case. 
This sort of service often requires considerable consultation in the 
general university library and in the offices of different university 
departments. Oklahoma and Indiana both report instances of in- 
quiries on legal questions which required consultation with members 
of the law faculty, some of them involving considerable investigation. 

To indicate the range of subjects, a director of a bureau cites a 
number of requests for information which came to him in one day. 
Two of them asked for " full information " concerning the " budget 
system " and " how to cure pork in warm weather." Requests re- 
ferred to the Washington division from the States ranged from 
technical questions concerning war-risk insurance, vocational guid- 
ance, vital statistics, to general questions concerning community 
centers, merchant marine, military training, reconstruction. Many 
letters written in pencil and on all sorts of stationery ask simply for 
'" literature." " Please send me a package library " frequently comes 
through the mail ; sometimes the writer asks for a bibliography with- 
out specifying the subject. These inquiries do not represent mere 
ignorance; often they are evidence of a real desire for information. 
Sometimes a letter explains elaborately the isolated situation of the 
writer and appeals eloquently for something interesting to read and 
study. He has heard of the university as a public institution and 
yet may not know that his own town has a public library which could 
satisfy his desire. Others know their libraries and other sources of 
information, but desire something additional which will give them 
a wider knowledge of certain specific subjects. 

Probably all universities recognize their obligation to answer re- 
quests for information on educational opportunities and on subjects 
which are represented in their curricula. In response to a sugges- 
tion that inquiries of this nature received at Washington might be 
referred to the universities of the States from which the letters come, 
33 university presidents or the directors of extension replied that 
the reference to them of the letters would be welcomed and that they 
would endeavor to furnish the information desired. Many specified 
in detail the kinds of inquiries which they were prepared to handle, 
but most of them agreed to take care of all inquiries which the 
Federal office judged suitable for reference to the State. 

To the suggestion the chancellor of a southern university replied, 
"Any question asked by a citizen of this State I am quite sure the 
university is in a position to answer. If there should be any question 
134585°— 20 i 



26 



PUBLIC DlSCUSSIOIif AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 



which we can not answer, we are prepared to refer it to the proper 
source of information." The president of a university in the North 
wrote, " The university receives every day a considerable number of 
letters asking information on all sorts of subjects, both on earth and 
in heaven. We make it a point to answer all such inquiries." An- 
other university offered to answer any inquiries, " so long as they are 
not too expensive in their requirements for special investigation." 
A director of extension explains that the division is in close touch 
with experts of the university and State departments and therefore 
has opportunity for exceptional advisory assistance, and that the 
university's splendid library facilities afford almost unlimited oppor- 
tunity for research. 

Informational hulletins. — General information service involves, in 
addition to extended correspondence and the furnishing of printed 
matter procured from many sources, a considerable amount of effort 
devoted to the preparation and printing of special informational 
bulletins. The following is a suggestive list of bulletins issued by a 
few of the university extension divisions for their general informa- 
tion service. They are selected to show the variety of subjects 
treated. 



California : 
Compulsory Health Insurance. 
Military Service. 
Single-House Legislature. 
The News-Print Situation. 
League to Enforce Peace. 
Steps Toward Democracy. 
From North to South in Europe. 
Episodes in American History. 
Colorado : 

Protection Against Typhoid. 
The Practical Value of Birds. 
Insanity, Its Nature, Causes, and 

Prevention. 
Community Welfare Conferences. 
Administrative Efficiency in a De- 
mocracy. 

Social Education and Public Health. 
Indiana : 

The Community Schoolhouse. 

Indiana Local History. 

Play and Recreation. 

Community Institutes. 

Financing the War. 

Vocational Recreation in Indiana. 

Women in Industry. 

School and Community Service. 

Americanization in Indiana. 
Iowa: 

Store Lighting. 

Vocational Guidance in High 
Schools. 

Principles of Advertising. 

Employers' Welfare Work in Iowa. 

Iowa Handbook on Child Welfare. 

The Social Survey. 

Newspaper English. 



Iowa — Continued. 

The Overdraft Evil as Illustrated in 
Iowa Banks. 

Survey of the School Buildings of 
Muscatine. 
Kansas : 

Constructive Juvenile Effort in Kan- 
sas. 

Suggestions for Forming Child Wel- 
fare Organizations. 

The Cigarette Problem. 

Training for Debating. 

Merchants' Week Lectures. 

Plays for Schools. 

The Department of General Infor- 
mation. 
Missouri : 

Preservation of Food in the Home. 

Abnormal and Defective Children. 

The House Fly. 

Country Roads. 

Technical and Manual Arts for Gen- 
eral Educational Purposes. 

Better Highways. 

The Feeding of Children. ., 

Minnesota : 

Community Centers. 

University Extension — What and 
Why. 

Handbook of Extension Service. 

Community Service. 
North Carolina: 

Ship Subsidies. 

Cooperative Institutions Among the 
Farmers of Catawba County. 

Sampson County: Economic and 
Social. 



PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 27 

North Carolina — Continued. Texas — Continued. 

Our Country Claurch Problem. University Aid for Community 

Oui: Carolina Highlanders. Councils of Defense. 

County Government and County Af- War Songs for Conmiunity Meet- 
fairs, ings. 

National Ideals in British and Washington: 

American Literature. The Social and Civic Center. 

The Community Pageant. State Roads and Permanent High- 
Reconstruction and Citizenship. ways. 
Oklahoma : The Making of a Newspaper. 

Workmen's Compensation. Taxation in Washington. 

Municipal Affairs. Ethical Aspects of Journalism. 

The Great War. Ores, Coals, and Useful Rocks of 

Social Problems. Washington. 

Oregon : Wisconsin : 

Home Study Courses for Teachers. Community Music and Drama. 

Emergency Courses for Men in War Industrial Education and Depend- 

Industries. ency. 

Putting the Eyes to Work, Municipal and Sanitary Engineer- 
Training for Citizenship. ing. 
Texas : Nursing as a Vocation for Women. 

School Literary Societies. Organized Poor Relief in Wisconsin. 

The Furnishing and Decoration of The Eye in Industrial Accidents, 

the Home. Public Recreation. 

A Study of Rural Schools in Tra- Wisconsin Baby Week. 

vis County. The Manual Arts as Vocations. 

Pure Milk and How to Get It. Prenatal Care. 

CLUB STUDY AND LIBRARY SERVICE. 

Club study and library service is to some extent centralized and 
directed in most of the States, either by the universities or by the 
State libraries and commissions. Aside from the promotion of 
local public library organization, which is the chief function of 
the library commission, the central club study and library service 
of both university and commission is, generally speaking, of two 
kinds — assistance in supplementing the resources of local public 
libraries by the circulation of books and other materials for study ; 
and assistance by advice and suggestion to State leagues, to local 
clubs, and to individuals in study and investigation. 

Library commissions. — The advisory work of the universities and 
commissions consists chiefly in the recommendation to clubs and so- 
cieties of suitable topics for study, the preparation of bibliographies 
and outlines of study courses, and suggestions for the best methods 
of systematic study. The work of supplementing local library re- 
sources consists of the lending of traveling libraries, package 
libraries, exhibits, lantern slides, motion-picture films, the distribu- 
tion of informational bulletins, and the furnishing of lecturers for 
addresses in series. In both phases of the work the universities and 
commissions deal with individuals and organizations anywhare in 
the State, whether there exists a local public library or not; that 
is, the central service may not be linked with the service of a local 
library, depending on the arrangement made by persons who secure 
the service. 



28 PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 

Scope of university service. — What is the scope of the chib study 
and library service of university extension divisions and what rela- 
tion has it to that of the library commissions? The answer to the 
question is best found in the fact that library commissions have 
chiefly administrative functions, and universities have primarily the 
functions of research, teaching, and dissemination of information. 
Accordingly, the university extension divisions have seldom directly 
engaged in the work of organizing local public libraries or of estab- 
lishing methods of providing standardized collections of books for 
the use of small communities which have no public library. This 
work is left to the library commissions and committees in 30 States. 
In others, library organization is promoted usually by a division of 
the State library or is left to local initiative. 

Library commissions do, however, undertake certain activities 
which are not primarily administrative, activities which are more 
conmionly undertaken by the universities. There are several reasons 
for this. The advisability of keeping the two fields of administration 
and education separate is not always recognized ; in some States the 
universities have not undertaken club study and library service and 
the commissions find it advisable to meet the demand for such serv- 
ice on the part of the people; in other States commission and uni- 
versity officers find the field of service so wide and the possibilities 
so great that there is room for both agencies to cooperate in the 
same line of work. 

Traveling libraries. — The most characteristic activity of the library 
commissions, which at the same time is undertaken by some univer- 
sities, is the circulation of traveling libraries of books. These travel- 
ing libraries are small collections of bound volumes, averaging about 
25, for miscellaneous reading. The make-up of the collection is much 
the same, on a small scale, as that of local public libraries. Their 
object is to supplement the latter where it is small and to supply a 
substitute when it is absent. The loan collections are sent both to 
individuals and to community organizations. Several university ex- 
tension divisions lend traveling libraries. Oklahoma had over 100 
in circulation in 1919. The Wyoming extension service circulates 
traveling libraries consisting of 20 or more books of fiction, history, 
science, and travel. 

Legislative reference. — Some of the State libraries conduct legis- 
lative reference bureaus. When the university in the same State also 
has a reference bureau, the field is usually divided, so that the library 
serves especially the State departments and legislators and the uni- 
versity serves primarily the municipal authorities and local commu- 
nity organizations. 

Special service. — Most library commissions attempt to provide 
special collections of books for women's clubs. The clubs submit their 



PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 29 

yearly program and ask for certain books on the subjects listed. The 
books are procured and lent, sometimes for the year, upon payment 
by the club of a small fee and transportation charges. Frequently 
outlines and bibliographies are furnished, and some assistance is 
offered in the making of programs. A similar kind of club service is 
given by many of the universities, especially in the States which do 
not have commissions. When both agencies develop this service, the 
tendency is for the commission to lend books and the university 
to provide outlines and bibliographies and advisory assistance. This 
is a recognition of the fact that universities have access to the numer- 
ous specialists in various departments and to superior special library 
facilities. An extension bureau need not be limited by insufficient 
staff, for the whole university faculty is usually at its service for 
particular consultation and general reference. 

Somewhat distinct from the library service to women's clubs is 
that which supplies collections of books and other printed matter 
on definite, limited topics of study. These are furnished extensively, 
both to individuals and to small groups, by library commissions as 
well as by university extension divisions. Just as in the case of meet- 
ing the needs of women's clubs, the supplying of this service is more 
naturally the function of the extension divisions, having as they 
do greater resources and more flexibility in the purchase, publica- 
tion, and distribution of printed matter, especially fugitive material 
from newspapers and magazines and casual prints, such as announce- 
ments, programs, syllabi, and outlines, and manuscripts of every 
tvpe. 

The most common form of extension service in this line is that of 
the package library. Its field is somewhat more circumscribed than 
that of the club libraries above mentioned and corresponds, in a 
more unpretentious way, to that of the special library on a single 
topic. Its make-up has already been described. It furnishes assist- 
ance for debates, for the preparation of papers by club members 
and high-school students or teachers, and for similar purposes in a 
great variety of organizations, as well as for individual study. Its 
largest use at present is for purposes of debating, especially for 
contests of the high school and similar debating leagues. Of the 32 
universities which assist public discussion and debating in their 
States, 27 either maintain a package library system of their own or 
have an arrangement with the university library to furnish the 
necessary debating material. Ten library commissions also have a 
debating service, three of these being in States where the extension 
divisions do not maintain such a service and one in a State which 
does not have a general extension division. In the remaining six, 
either the division or the commission gives practically all the service. 



30 PUBLIC DISCUSSIOlSr AND UNIVEESITY EXTENSION. 

The more highly developed package library services are coming to 
be almost exclusively maintained by the universities. 

The correspondence reference service, supplying general informa- 
tion and references for reading in answer to inquiries from indi- 
viduals or groups, is even more completely in the hands of the exten- 
sion divisions, only a few commissions giving it any attention. 

In the matter of lending pictures and slides, likewise, the dupli- 
cation is not extensive. Only three oi the commissions in States 
which have general extension divisions furnish material of this sort, 
while several of those in other States do so extensively. A not un- 
usual arrangement is for the extension division to supply slides for 
illustrated lectures, while the commission circulates pictures and, in 
a few instances, stereoscopic views. 

In the case of general club service, although it is undertaken by 
26 universities and 19 commissions, there is little duplication of 
effort. In only three instances are special books lent by both com- 
mission and university. In only two States are outlines and special 
bibliographies furnished to clubs by both agencies. In 11 States 
there is apparent duplication in club service, but upon analysis it 
becomes clear that the commissions and universities have developed 
substantially different activities. 

C ooperafion. — The statements just made indicate that wherever 
there is a possibility of duplication of work by the extension divi- 
sions and the library commissions, there is a strong tendency to 
divide the field between them. The field is indeed so vast that there 
can be little difficulty in this line. There is evidence in a number of 
States of a cordial cooperation, either by a distinct understanding 
of what each organization is to take as its special province, or by 
a willing mutual support and assistance. In California, Indiana, 
Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Wisconsin, for instance, the 
commission publishes, as one of its aims, to cooperate with the ex- 
tension division, not only in its debating service, but in some in- 
stances also in its correspondence study work. And the cases where 
the extension divisions leave the library service, either in whole or 
in part, to the commissions, show the same spirit existing on their 
part also. 

Club study courses. — The most distinctive kind of club service per- 
formed by extension divisions not undertaken by library commis- 
sions consists of a definitely planned course of study followed by 
the club with the aid and supervision of an instructor from the uni- 
versity, or at least of a lecturer or director who meets the group at 
intervals. The courses resemble the regular university extension 
class, which in turn may be similar to the regular residence class. 
The course for clubs, however, is not usually designed to be as in- 



PUBLIC DISCUSSION" AND UNIVEKSITY EXTENSION. 31 

tensive as the regular class, and of course academic credit is not 
given. These courses for women's clubs and civic organizations 
sometimes go by the name of " group study." 

The supervision of these courses involves varying amounts of 
work by the extension division and the instructor. The general plan 
and the details of arrangement for each club in different cities are 
worked out by the extension division in cooperation with club lead- 
ers. The instructor may give a series of lectures, or he may present 
the prepared outline or course at a single meeting and return later 
to summarize the ground covered by the club, or he may confine his 
direction to correspondence concerning difficulties encountered in the 
course. 

Practically all university extension divisions offer group study 
courses of this nature; most of them, however, limiting their serv- 
ice to providing instructors or lecturers. Fees are charged for these 
services in most instances, at least for the lecturers who are drawn 
from various university departments. When such courses are con- 
ducted by members of the extension staff, the fees are usually levied 
on the basis of travel expenses. Some dissatisfaction with this prac- 
tice has arisen among extension directors on the ground that clubs 
frequently pay high fees for commercial lecturers and at the same 
time demand excessive service from the university with little effort 
or pecuniary help in return to meet a share of the work and expense 
that burden the university. 

Correspondence study courses are sometimes utilized by women's 
clubs as a basis for their programs. Miss Nadine Crump, of the 
California Extension Division, describes the method as it was em- 
ployed in her State : 

When the division was first established a great many club women made an 
appeal for some educational food for the women. * * * The bill of fare 
at that time was altogether too academic and uninviting ; moreover, the mem- 
bers in most cases could not afford to pay the fee, so they were turned away 
hungry. The fee being a stumblingblock to those who most needed the 
service, a plan was devised by which the difficulty might be eliminated. It 
was proposed that one or more members register for the course, the fee to 
be paid either by the member registering or by the club or the section of 
the club in which the work was to de done. These students prepared the 
assignments far enough in advance of the club meetings to enable them to 
receive their papers with corrections and suggestions from the instructor at 
the university. Thus fortified by study and by aid from the insti-uctor, 
the member is enabled to lead the club in the discussion of the topic in question. 
Several clubs have thus substituted a correspondence course for their usual 
program. Sometimes a club organized itself into a class, to which an instructor 
was sent at weekly or semiweekly periods.^ 



^ Proc. Nat. Univ. Extension Association, 1916. 



32 PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 

The success with which the work was carried on is indicated by the 
reports from the club women. The following is an extract from 
such a report: 

The class finds the course very interesting. It has stimulated newspaper 
and magazine reading among our club members to a marked degree. None 
of our members wishes to get credit for the course. We are all married 
and most of us are mothers of families, and our desire in taking this course 
was simply to stimulate our minds and receive instruction that would give 
us some organized ideas as to why this and other wars have been entered 
into. A different member of the club takes the assignment each week and 
gives it to the class, answers the questions, and writes a paper on her allotment. 
Afterwards there is a general discussion. 

The correspondence course, however, is not generally satisfactory ; 
but the fact that many clubs have used it and reported progress 
indicates how strongly the members of the clubs desire to do hard 
and thorough work under the direction of their university. 

Study outlines. — Many extension divisions are issuing substantial 
series of study outlines for clubs and other study groups. Some of 
these amount to a breaking of new ground; they are a departure 
from the old outline which usually dealt with such subjects as art, 
history of .Greece, great musicians, natural history, and the like. 
These newer courses deal with local community conditions, local 
history, social and child-welfare surveys, county government studies, 
and similar subjects which have not been extensively treated in 
books. Still others offer systematic guidance in the study of large 
general problems, which, however, are of lively contemporary in- 
terest and importance. One such club-study outline on Problems 
of the War was prepared by Indiana University extension division 
and reprinted by the women's committee of the Council of National 
Defense. Though this outline was prepared in the fall of 1917, it 
nevertheless adhered to sound traditions of university study in that 
it refrained from the tendency to concentrate on purely war topics 
and laid considerable emphasis on reconstruction problems which at 
that time had hardly touched public attention. 

Another club-study course, prepared by the University of North 
Carolina, illustrates the same tendency toward high standards in the 
consideration of current topics of great public importance. It is a 
" Course on Americanization : Studies of the peoples and the move- 
ments that are building up the American Nation," Although it is 
printed in attractive and simple style and avoids heavy academic 
treatment, it nevertheless is far from being a merely popular or 
superficial outline. Careful suggestions are given for the proper use 
of the program, among which is the following : " The outline is in- 
tended as a guide for reading and studying, not as a cut- and- dried 
program. It should be adapted to the interests of the individual 
club." The program contains a large number of pertinent and well- 



PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 33 

selected quotations from authorities on immigration and American- 
ization, and presents a comprehensive bibliography which is at the 
same time well arranged for practical use. The bulletin does not 
take the popular or one-sided view of the general problem. Instead 
it takes the high ground indicated in the following quotations : 

The course is addressed in the main to the study of the immigrant in his 
American environment. It is an attempt to malie tlie foreign bom better linown 
to native Americans, in order that a more intelligent and appreciative relation 
may spring up among the members of the composite family. * * * -y^^ have 
lost much by ignoring all that the immigrant brings with him and we have 
missed much by a failure to realize what he represents. 

The extension division of the University of Colorado issued in 
January, 1919, an attractive folder announcing in some detail the 
service it offers to women's clubs. The following is a condensed de- 
scription of a number of the outlines which it furnishes on request: 

" Women's Place in Reconstruction." 

A brief study of -women's advancement up to the time of the outbreak of the war, the 
work she has done during the war, and her part and place in the reconstruction period. 

" The Effect of War on Education." 

A study of education in various nations before the war, how this education has failed in 
the war, how the war has changed and is changing education, and what niust be done 
to prevent education from becoming a failure in the future. 

" Child Welfare." 

A study of the new appreciation of childhood, including such topics as health, education, 
recreation, socialization, and child-labor problems. 

" Community Studif." 

The big modern social problem, Including all others, is that of living together. To do 
this successfully, we need to understand the facts and relations of modern community 
life. This outline is intended as a guide for the study of one's community. 

" Periods of English or American Literature." 

It is suggested that some one period be selected for a detailed study. A subject that 
would be interesting and profitable for a club would be the Effect of the War on Litera- 
ture, or War Poetry, depending upon the interests of the club. 

" The Artistic Home." 

This outline includes the following topics : Interior decoration, landscape gardening, 
pictures for the house, small-house planning, application of color in dyeing fabrics. 

The general extension division of the University of Arkansas 
prints suggestions for yearbook committees, including the offer of 
study outlines on European and American nations, and states that 
lantern slides can be secured to supplement programs on the various 
countries, as well as phonograph records to use with special music 
programs. Among the club study outlines offered are the following : 

General: Art — Continued. 

Social Problems in Arkansas. English and American Painters. 

American Literature. Indian, Chinese, and Japanese Art. 

South American Republics. History of Art. 

Art: Some Great Masters. 

Design and Color Applied to th6 Greek Sculpture and Architecture. 

Modern Home. Music: 

Arts and Crafts. Great Musicians — Opera. 

French Cathedrals. Music of the Different Nations — War 

Flemish Art. Music. 



34 PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVEESITY EXTENSION. 

The Oklahoma division prints outlines of subjects for " Studies in 
Current Topics." One such outline gives in detail the topics and 
subtopics which are covered by a series of four bulletins on : " Studies 
on the Great War " ; " Social Problems " ; " Problems of Personal De- 
velopment"; "Living in Oklahoma." Under the "General Theme: 
Living in Oklahoma " are listed eight parts, each of which is exten- 
sively subdivided. The parts are : " Material Resources " ; " Okla- 
homa Civics " ; " Spiritual Resources " ; " Oklahoma History " ; 
"Americanization " ; " Needs and Problems " ; "Applications of Liv- 
ing in Oklahoma " ; "A Social Survey of the Community." 

CLUB STUDY, PUBLIC DISCUSSION, AND LIBRARY SERVICE BY 

STATES. 

The following is a brief description of the service offered in the 
48 States. It is intended to' show at a glance the salient points for 
each State in so far as the relation between library commission and 
university division is concerned, especially with reference to possible 
duplication of work. In order to avoid repetition only incidental 
mention is made of the work of the commission, in legislative refer- 
ence, in the promotion of public library organization, and the circula- 
tion of traveling libraries. For the same reason the lecture service 
and general information service of universities are usually omitted. 
This applies also to visual instruction (through lantern slides, motion 
pictures, and exhibits). The list does not include the municipal uni- 
versities, the private institutions, the colleges, and the normal schools, 
many of which offer considerable service. 

AlahaofYia. — The University of Alabama, at University, assists the 
work of discussion and debating clubs, especially in secondary schools. 
The Alabama Department of Archives and History, at Montgomery, 
has a division of library extension, which circulates traveling 
libraries and gives some assistance to clubs. 

Arizona. — The General Extension Division, at Tucson, offers its 
service to clubs and other organizations for debating and public 
discussion. Material on all public questions may be secured on re- 
quest. A loan-package library service is being organized. 

Arkansobs. — The General Extension Division of the University of 
Arkansas, at Fayetteville, supplies package libraries for clubs and 
debating societies and business men. It outlines reading and study 
courses for clubs, with suggested topics and references, providing spe- 
cial material on municipal questions for papers and reports. The 
Arkansas Library Commission, at Little Rock, promotes library 
organization chiefly through advisory service. 

California. — The University of California Extension Division, at 
Berkeley, has made a practice of sending to the State Library, at 
Sacramento, and to the county libraries, a list of correspondence 



PTTBLIC DlSCUSSrOIir AND UNIVEESITY EXTENSION. 35 

students,, subjects, texts, and works of reference, as well as questions 
for debate, the names of schools taking part in the debating, and the 
dates of the contests. The libraries furnished the necessary books 
and materials. This arrangement was changed in 1919 to correct 
a situation which led to unnecessary work on the part of the libraries 
in the purchase of books which might not be used by the students. Tlie 
extension division has package libraries on a limited number of sub- 
jects, and provides a municipal reference s^vice. It supplies current 
events lectures and lantern slides, and circulates traveling industrial 
exhibits. The State Library furnishes traveling libraries and special 
books. 

Colorado. — The University of Colorado Extension Division, at 
Boulder, sends out books, magazines, and package libraries to indi- 
viduals, schools, and clubs for work in discussion and debating and 
for general information. It also supervises high-school debating 
and assists in arranging club progi-ams, furnishing outlines and 
courses. The division conducts municipal reference service. The 
State traveling library commission gives some service in the promo- 
tion of library organization. 

Connectixmt. — ^The Public Library Commission, at Hartford, lends 
a number of special libraries and pictures and furnishes club-study 
programs. It also has collections of stereopticon slides, with accom- 
panying lectures, for circulation. 

Belamare. — The Library Commission, State Library, at Dover, pro- 
motes library organization, lends books, and circulates traveling li- 
braries. 

Florida. — The University of Florida, at Gainesville, was given an 
appropriation for university extension by the legislature of 1919. 

Georgia. — The University of Georgia, at Athens, conducts a public 
discussion and general information service and lends a number of 
package libraries. The Georgia Library Commission, at Atlanta, 
gives chiefly advisory assistance in organizing local libraries. 

Idaho.— ThQ University of Idaho, at Moscow, lends books and 
other material for study. It also furnishes package libraries and de- 
bate material. It supplies bibliographies, outlines, and visual in- 
struction materials. The Idaho State Library Commission, at Boise, 
circulates traveling libraries. 

Illinois. — The Library Extension Commission, Springfield, fur- 
nishes collections of books and bibliographies for club study and 
debating. It supplies special school libraries, traveling libraries, 
club-study outlines. It also lends pictures and lantern slides. The 
University of Illinois, at Urbana, provides an information service 
in agricultural subjects and home economics. It gives some advisory 
assistance in community organization. 



36 PUBLIC DISCUSSIO]Sr ANT) UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 

Indiatia. — 'Indiana Universit}^ Extension Division, at Bloomington, 
supplies package library service for individuals and clubs, for study 
and for debating and discussion. It maintains traveling art and wel- 
fare exhibits, some of which were turned over to it by the Public Li- 
brary Commission and a committee of the Federation of Women's 
Clubs. It gives considerable assistance to clubs : Bibliographies, out- 
lines, study courses, lantern slides, films, stereoscopic views, lectures. 
The Public Library Commission, at Indianapolis, confines its work 
(other than that of organization) chiefly to the lending of books, not 
only those in traveling libraries, but also special volumes for clubs 
and other groups. 

Iowa.-—T]\Q University of Iowa Extension Division, at Iowa City, 
offers service to clubs. It prepares club study outlines, furnishes 
package libraries for business men, and lends lantern slides, films, 
and exhibits. The university library furnishes package libraries for 
subjects of debate among high schools. The Iowa Library Commis- 
sion, at Des Moines, maintains an extensive reference and club serv- 
ice, and supplies libraries for a number of subjects of debate. It 
also has a number of traveling picture collections. 

Kansas. — The Extension Division of the University of Kansas, at 
Lawrence, has a public discussion, debating, and club service, and co- 
operates with the State Municipal League. It supplies package 
libraries and collections of books on a large number of subjects, espe- 
cially for club work and debating. It furnishes study outlines to 
clubs and individuals. The Traveling Libraries Commission, at 
Topeka, has a number of collections of books for correspondence 
study students. It lends pictures and special books. 

Kentucky. — The University of Kentucky Department of Univer- 
sity Extension supplies package libraries, bibliographies, study 
outlines, and other material to clubs and other organizations. It 
promotes public discussion and debating; it cooperates with the 
Department of English in the conduct of high-school debating 
contests. The Bureau of General Information and Welfare offers a 
comprehensive information service, including assistance in community 
dramatics. The Kentucky Library Commission, at Frankfort, 
furnishes collections of books, programs, and outlines to clubs and 
bibliographies for debates and essays. 

Louisiana. — The University of Louisiana does not maintain gen- 
eral extension service in this field. 

Maine. — The University of Maine, at Orono, has given some as- 
sistance to secondary school debating. The Maine Library Com- 
mission, at Augusta, cooperates with the Federation of Women's 
Clubs in placing traveling collections, and furnishes clubs, com- 
munity centers, and other organizations with libraries. 



PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSIOIfl'. 37 

Maryland. — The General Extension Division of Maryland State 
College, at College Park, conducts a package library service and 
assists clubs and debating societies. The Maryland Public Library 
Commission, at Baltimore, promotes the organization of public 
libraries and lends traveling libraries. 

Massachusetts. — The Department of University Extension, at Bos- 
ton, publishes informational bulletins and cooperates with the Free 
Library Commission in providing a general information service. 
The commission encourages library extension in outlying districts by 
supplying books, and through the Women's Education Association 
places books in the hands of foreign-born persons in the State. 

Michigan. — The University of Michigan Extension Division, at 
Ann Arbor, through its library extension service, provides package 
libraries, briefs for debate, lists of books, model lessons, lists of 
plays, and study outlines. It conducts a municipal reference bureau. 
It serves civic clubs and many other organizations, including 
public libraries. The State Library, at Lansing, maintains col- 
lections of books for women's clubs and special libraries for civic 
and other organizations, as well as an extensive collection of pictures 
illustrating ancient and modern art. 

Minnesota. — The University of Minnesota Extension Division, at 
Minneapolis, conducts a municipal reference bureau. It furnishes 
plays for community dramatics and provides programs and other 
aids for community centers and clubs. The Public Library Commis- 
sion, at St. Paul, supplies special libraries and outlines to a large 
number of study clubs. It lends books, pamphlets, magazine articles, 
pictures, stereoscopic views. It maintains a package library service 
for high-school debating and essay writing, and assists the State dis- 
cussion league. 

Mississippi. — The University of Mississippi has not developed gen- 
eral extension work. The service bureau of Mississippi Agricultural 
and Mechanical College maintains a package library department. It 
supplies visual instruction materials and a general information 
service. 

MissouH. — The Extension Division of the University of Missouri, 
at Columbia, by arrangement with the university library and the 
Missouri Library Commission, at Jefferson City, furnishes package 
libraries and books to individuals, clubs, and debating societies. It 
maintains a traveling art exhibit and lends lantern slides. It gives 
a special information service on municipal affairs. The commission, 
besides circulating traveling libraries, also supplies sets of books, 
pictures, and other material for schools, study clubs, and debating 
societies. 

Montana.— T\\& Public Service Division of the University of Mon- 
tana, at Missoula, maintains a general information service. It as- 



38 PUBLIC DlSCUSSIOI^r AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 

sists clubs and debating societies in choosing subjects and furnisbes 
bibliographies and study outlines. The university library lends 
package libraries to individuals and to schools, and gives general 
assistance to town and country libraries. 

Nehrasha. — The Extension Division of the University of Ne- 
braska, at Lincoln, maintains a loan library of books and periodicals; 
it supplies material for debating and circulates lantern slides and 
motion pictures. The Public Library Commission, at Lincoln, co- 
operates directly with the extension division in supplying books and 
other material for club study and debating and for extension classes. 

Nevada. — The University of Nevada Library, at Reno, regularly 
lends books, pamphlets, and magazines to students, debaters, club 
workers, and readers throughout the State. 

Neio Hampshire. — The Public Library Commission gives chiefly 
advisory assistance in library development. The colleges of the 
State have not developed general extension work. 

New Jersey. — The Public Library Commission, at Trenton, in ad- 
dition to its regular traveling libraries, maintains an extensive loan 
service to individuals for special study. This it is enabled to do 
through the cooperation of the larger public libraries in the State. 
It gives direct aid to school libraries. Rutgers College, at New 
Brunswick, gives assistance in debating. 

New Mexico. — The University of New Mexico, at Albuquerque, 
provides package library service and assists in debating and public 
discussion. A system of traveling libraries is maintained. The 
service is being reorganized and expanded. 

New York. — The University of the State of New York, at Albany, 
through the Educational Extension Division and State Library, cir- 
culates traveling libraries to schools, study clubs, libraries, communi- 
ties, individuals, and organizations of all kinds. It encourages 
systematic work by study clubs and gives assistance in preparing 
programs. It issues certificates to clubs maintaining certain standards. 
It furnishes package libraries and assists in debating and public 
discussion. The visual instruction division circulates a large collec- 
tion of slides and pictures for illustrated lectures and special study. 

North Carolina. — The Extension Division of the University of 
North Carolina, at Chapel Hill, has material, including package 
libraries, sent out from the university library for debating and club 
work. It promotes club study, especially the study of local and 
county affairs, conditions, and government. It has issued a syllabus 
of Home-County Club Studies, a studj^ outline on the Country 
Church, and a course on Americanization. The division prepares 
annually the official study outline for the Federation of Women's 
Clubs and lends supplementary material. It provides special mate- 
rial for municipal reference. The State Library Commission, at 



PUBLIC DISCUSSION" AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION". 39 

Raleigh, furnishes programs for clubs. It supplies special books 
and some package libraries. 

North Dakota. — The University of North Dakota Extension Divi- 
sion, at Grand Forks, sends out bibliographies and other library 
material for debating and public discussion. It also provides a 
package library and general information service. The State Library 
Commission, at Bismarck, maintains a reference service and supplies' 
collections of books and package libraries for club study and de- 
bating. 

Ohio. — The Board of Library Commissioners, State Library, at 
Columbus, has a library organization department, which promotes 
the extension of public-library facilities in the State. The colleges 
and universities assist high-school debating. Miami University, at 
Oxford, lends books to extension centers and to individuals. 

Oklahoma. — The Extension Division of the University of Okla- 
homa, at Norman, furnishes package libraries and lends sets of books, 
especially on rural and municipal subjects. It offers special munici- 
pal and commercial aids. It prepares digests of material for study, 
debate, and discussion on current questions and distributes them 
through printed bulletins, a distinctive kind of " Current Events 
Study " service. The State legislature created a library commission 
in 1919. 

Oregon. — The University of Oregon Extension Division, at Eu- 
gene, supplies package libraries and other aids to individuals and 
study clubs. It provides a general information service and also 
assists a State debating league. The State Library, at Salem, main- 
tains a reference collection of clippings, public documents, and other 
material which it sends out on request. It has loan collections of 
books and pamphlets for debating societies and special study libraries 
for clubs. 

Pennsylvania. — The Extension Division of the University of Pitts- 
burg supplies package libraries, assists debating societies, and pro- 
vides a general information and club service. The Pennsylvania 
State College gives some assistance in debating and public discussion. 
The Free Library Commission, at Harrisburg, promotes library 
organization, lends books and pictures, and provides club study and 
debating services. 

Rhode Island. — The State committee on libraries. Department of 
Education, at Providence, gives direct aid to local libraries. Brown 
University provides library and club service. 

South Carolina. — The Extension Division of the University of 
South Carolina, at Columbia, conducts a general information and 
club service. It assists in the organization and supervision of high- 
school debating. 



40 PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVEKSITY EXTENSION. 

South Dakota. — The Extension Division of the University of 
South Dakota, at Vermilion, furnishes lists of discussion and debate 
topics with outlines and bibliographies and supplies package libra- 
ries. It lends visual instruction material. The Free Library Com- 
mission, at Pierre, lends to schools package libraries and books for 
debate. It serves clubs with programs, outlines, and books. 

Tennessee. — The University of Tennessee, at Knoxville, supplies 
lectures and other assistance to clubs. It assists debating and discus- 
sion societies. The division of library extension, Department of 
Education, at Nashville, promotes library organization. 

Texas. — The Extension Division of the University of Texas, at 
Austin, sends out package libraries on a large number of subjects for 
use in debating, club study, and other purposes. It maintains an ex- 
tensive system of club study, with courses similar to those offered at 
the university. A comprehensive general information service has 
been developed. The Texas Library and Historical Commission, at 
Austin, cooperates in library service, lending books, pamphlets, and 
outlines. It refers requests for information on current topics to the 
extension division, and the division refers in turn inquiries for his- 
torical and certain types of technical material. 

Utah. — The Extension Division of the University of Utah, at Salt 
Lake City, fills requests for books, package libraries, and other ma- 
terial for debating and club study through the university library. 
The Department of Public Instruction, at Salt Lake City, has a 
library secretary and organizer who promotes library development. 
The State Library gives some service in addition to legislative ref- 
erence. 

Vermont. — The Free Public Library Commission, at Montpelier, 
in addition to the usual traveling library service, provides a number 
of club-study collections and furnishes special books and package 
libraries. It also has a number of picture collections. The Univer- 
sity of Vermont, at Burlington, circulates educational exhibits. 

Virginia. — The University of Virginia, at Charlottesville, lends 
package libraries on a limited number of subjects, supplies general 
information, and assists discussion and debating societies. The State 
Library, at Richmond, sends out collections of books to communities 
and study clubs. 

Washington. — The Extension Division of the University of Wash- 
ington, at Seattle, has temporarily discontinued its package library 
service, but still furnishes a general information and club service. It 
prepares bulletins, outlines, bibliographies, and other material on 
social problems. The division conducts a bureau of municipal and 
legislative research. The Washington State Library Commission, at 
Olympia, gives advice in establishing local public libraries and some 



PUBLIC DISCUSSIOIT AND UNIVEKSITY EXTENSION. 41 

assistance in club study and debating. Washington State College, at 
Pullman, prepares bibliographies, bulletins, and package libraries 
for debate and club study. 

West Virgima. — The University of West Virginia library sends 
out package libraries and other material to communities, study clubs, 
and high schools, and gives assistance in public discussion and de- 
bating. The newly organized Extension Department is preparing to 
expand the work. 

Wisconsin. — The Extension Division of the University of Wis- 
consin, at Madison, has a very extensive collection of package 
libraries, for use by debating leagues and clubs of every kind, and 
for information and study in general. It conducts a comprehensive 
general information and welfare service. It prepares programs, 
outlines courses, debate bulletins, and furnishes guidance, lectures, 
and visual-instruction material to women's clubs, civic clubs, com- 
munity centers. The division provides a municipal reference service. 
The Free Library Commission, at Madison, cooperates with the ex- 
tension division by supplying group libraries for extension classes 
and community institutes. It lends special books and pictures and 
does reference work by correspondence. 

Wyoming. — The University of Wyoming, at Laramie, through its 
Division of Non-Eesident Instruction, lends traveling libraries to in- 
dividuals and organizations. It arranges lecture courses and provides 
a general information service. 

ASSISTANCE IN DEBATING AND OTHER FORMS OF PUBLIC 

DISCUSSION. 

One of the first activities of university extension was that of fur- 
nishing lecturers for all sorts of community occasions. At first these 
lectures had little relation to public discussion as it is ordinarily 
understood, but they did frequently present information on current 
public topics and at least arouse interest in them. Recently, how- 
ever, with the growth of extension classes, club-study courses, and 
the revival of the civic club, the community center, the forums, and 
other organizations interested in economic, political, and social ques- 
tions, the lecturer who is a specialist in any one of these fields finds 
his services in demand for the purpose of assisting more and more 
groups of people who are seriously interested in community prob- 
lems and desire help in educating or informing public; opinion. 

As the extension divisions expanded their lecture service to meet 
the needs of civic clubs, farmers' welfare associations, child-welfare 
societies, and numerous similar organizations, they also added the 
different kinds of information service, such as the package library, 
the study course, and the informational bulletin described in this 
bulletin, for the definite purpose of stimulating intelligent public 



42 PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 

discussion as an end to some extent worth while in itself. The uni- 
versities have not, however, succeeded to any great degree in pro- 
moting the organization of public-discussion societies among adults, 
but have given their energy chiefly to furnishing assistance to such 
societies organized and maintained by the communities themselves. 

But the extension division naturally found it easy to promote the 
debating work of secondary schools, because the machinery of the 
public schools was ready to hand. School officials interested in high- 
school debating proved to be ready to cooperate with the universi- 
ties in the effort to widen the scope and improve the methods of 
current events study and debate on questions of public interest. At 
first this effort centered chiefly in furnishing materials for high- 
school debaters. Later, definite assistance was given in organizing 
debating and discussion leagues and contests of many kinds, in order 
to include more schools and larger numbers of students, and to devise 
methods of interesting adults in the problems debated throughout the 
State. 

High-school debating and discussion leagues are maintained or 
assisted by universities in the following States: 



Alabama. 


Maryland. 


Pennsylvania. 


Arizona. 


Michigan. 


South Carolina. 


Arkansas. 


Missouri. 


South Dakota. 


California. 


Montana. 


Tennessee. 


Colorado. 


Nebraska. 


Texas. 


Georgia. 


Nevada. 


Utah. 


Idaho. 


New .Jersey. 


Virginia. 


Indiana. 


New Mexico. 


Washington. 


Iowa. 


North Carolina. 


West Virginia. 


Kansas. 


North Dakota. 


Wisconsin. 


Kentucky. 


Oklahoma. 


Wyoming. 


Maine. 


Oregon. 





In most of these 35 States there are State- wide scholastic leagues 
maintained and directed by the extension divisions of the universities. 
In the following States the debate contests are not usually State-wide 
but are more limited in their scope — Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, 
Michigan, Nevada, Tennessee, South Carolina, West Virginia, and 
Wyoming. Every State has debating contests of some kind between 
secondary schools, but the local leagues are not usually supervised 
or directed by the universities, although the debaters are frequently 
given assistance by the extension division. State-wide leagues in 
three States are maintained and directed as follows : Illinois, by Knox 
College; Maryland, by Maryland State College; New Jersey, by 
Rutgers College. In Washington debate service is given by the State 
College at Pullman; the service by the University of Washington 
has been temporarily discontinued. The University of California 
has also discontinued the work. Ohio and Minnesota have State 



PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 43 

leagues not directed by the universities. Minnesota's league was 
probably the first organized in the United States, in 1902. In Penn- 
sylvania a State-wide debating contest was conducted by Pennsylva- 
nia State College in 1916. 

In the larger leagues the States are divided into districts which 
correspond sometimes to congressional districts, but are more often 
arranged with a view to ease of communication. California has 6; 
Indiana, 13; Iowa, 4; Kansas, 8; Michigan, 4; Missouri, 4; North 
Dakota, 12 ; Oklahoma, 8 ; Oregon, 12 ; Texas, 32 ; Virginia, 6. 

The series of preliminary contests in the districts are regularly 
arranged by a district director, and take place usually between 
November and April. The winners in the district meet according to a 
schedule arranged by the extension division or the State director or 
executive committee of the league; and the two, sometimes more, 
winning teams, which emerge from the contests between the districts, 
meet in a final clash at the State university some time in the spring. 
In the later phase of this series naturally but one question is debated ; 
in the preliminary contests within the districts often several different 
questions are debated in the same year. The final contest at the uni- 
versity is a great event for all the high schools and is largely attended 
by the students, especially by members of the senior class. 

In some States contests are also held not only in debating but also 
in declamation : North Dakota, Texas, Utah, Oklahoma, Pennsyl- 
vania. 

In essay writing : California, Texas, Pennsylvania. 

In music : North Dakota, Utah, Oklahoma. 

In spelling: Texas, Virginia, Pennsylvania. 

In extempore speaking: California, Iowa, Oklahoma, Pennsyl- 
vania. 

In public reading and oratory : Virginia, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania. 

Dehating. — A play-writing contest is held in Oregon. These con- 
tests are usually conducted according to somewhat the same arrange- 
ment as in the case of the debate. Debating was the original activity 
of these leagues, but the tendency is to broaden their scope. Not only 
have the other contests just referred to been gi^advially introduced 
in a number of States, but the form of the original contests seems 
itself to be imdergoing a change. Some effort is being made to 
turn them into discussions rather than formal debates. This is 
done in Indiana, for instance, and in the local literary prize contest 
of Virginia, where the speakers are not definitely limited as to 
number, and may speak on any phase of the question which they 
may choose. This method is particularly suited to the local contest. 
The topics set for discussion during the war, when dealing with 
some phase of it, could, under the circumstances, hardly be stated 
in such a wa}' as to admit of two opposing sides. Moreover, the 



44 PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 

danger of quarrels, charges of unfairness, and plagiarism also appear 
to have had an effect in the same direction. In some States — Califor- 
nia, Oklahoma, and Texas, for example — separate contests are ar- 
ranged for the pupils in the smaller high schools and rural schools 
and in the lower classes of the high school or the upper classes of the 
grades. 

Public-events study. — An interesting recent development is the 
public-events study contest in Oklahoma. A bulletin is sent out 
containing a number of subjects of current interest, with a brief 
discussion of them, and with questions and references. The contest 
consists of a written test and an ex tempore discussion on one of the 
topics which is chosen by lot. 

Contest at the university. — The following is a description of a 
contest held at the university seat : 

The interscholastic contest of the University of Pittsburgh illustrates the 
value of holding contests on neutral ground, where rivalry may be natural 
and good natured, where animosities have no place and the audience is not 
partisan. High schools for miles around send representative students to take 
part in the different events. 

These students have not been given opportunity for special preparation and 
are all on an equal basis. Enthusiasm runs high in all the events; even 
athletic contests could scarcely invoke more. Excellence of performance from 
whatever source elicits enthusiastic applause. The event includes spelling con- 
tests, debate, essay writing, extempore speaking, history contests, Latin, 
German, and French translations, declamation, and, in fact, all sorts of literary 
effort. In connection with this a track meet is also held under similar con- 
ditions.^ 

Contests in commu/mties. — Debate contests in the local high schools, 
especially those which are part of the league series, are frequently 
made the occasion of large community meetings which many adults 
attend. When a single question is debated in every part of the State 
during a definite period of time, inevitably the subject is studied 
and discussed widely by many mature persons. Since the tendency is 
to get away from rigid adherence to the old methods of formal debate 
and to lay the emphasis on informal discussion, the interest in the 
question is less and less confined to the debaters themselves and their 
coaches or instructors alone. Whole groups of students participate 
in the study of the topic, and they take the problem home to their 
elders, who frequently have decided opinions about them, especially 
since the questions are usually either local in their application or 
prominent in the public attention. 

In order to develop the possibilities of interesting adults in open 
discussion in the high schools, many experiments have been tried. 
At open meetings speakers from the universit}^ or the high school 

1 University of Pittsburgh Bulletin ; General Series, Vol. XIII, No. 17, University Ex- 
tension : Manual of Secondary School Activities, Mar. 17, 1917. 



PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 45 

lecture on the debate subject and persons in the audience take part 
in the discussion. This application of the forum method has been 
most successful in rural consolidated schools. Frequently school 
principals arrange elaborate programs of speaking and music to 
supplement short debates or talks by a number of high-school stu- 
dents, and the interest of the mature persons who attend the meeting 
is secured by the varied nature of the entertainment and discussion. 

Adult interest in debating. — Several States have tried a novel 
method of stimulating interest in debatable questions by arranging 
joint debates between college students who hold their contests in the 
high schools of various communities. These " Extension Debates," 
as they are called in Indiana, are arranged by the university- 
extension division and held under the supervision of school superin- 
tendents and principals, who assume part of the expenses of the 
visiting teams. The high school announces the meeting to the com- 
munity as an opportunity for public discussion and expression of 
opinion on a current question. At the meeting the contest is not held 
as a formal debate but as a contest of opinion. The teams from the 
two visiting colleges have chosen the afiu-mative or negative, accord- 
ing to their respective convictions ; they speak to convince the audi- 
ence of the validity of their point of view, not to defeat the opposing 
team in excellence of argument. Usually not more than four 
students compose the two teams. Before the discussion begins the 
chairman of the meeting explains the nature of the contest and 
announces that one or two short talks will be made from the floor 
by speakers from the community. At the close of the meeting a 
vote of the audience is taken on the question of debate; the audi- 
ence expresses its negative or affirmative opinion on the proposition. 
This new type of contest is sometimes unsuccessful in its prime 
purpose of inducing the audience to think on the question rather 
than the skill of the speakers. Experience shows that the old-style 
debate has a firm hold on the imagination of the people, and fre- 
quently they vote in favor of one team or the other instead of clearly 
expressing their opinion on the proposition under discussion. The 
chief comments of many who attend the meeting are likely to be on 
the persons who spoke at the meeting or concerning the colleges 
which the teams represented ; even newspaper reports of the contest 
sometimes treat it as a conventional debate, play up the " victorious " 
college, and ignore the question under discussion. 

These extension debates are described here because they illustrate 
the tendency to seek new methods of improving the quality of debate 
contests and of interesting mature persons as well as high-school 
students. The experiment has demonstrated without a doubt that 
school officials and other prominent persons in the community are 
willing to go to considerable trouble and some expense to provide 



46 PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 

opportunity for public discussion and that the people are keenly- 
interested in open debate on important questions of public policy. 

The Oklahoma Extension Division has been successful in stimu- 
lating discussion among adults. Many debating and discussion or- 
ganizations, especially in rural schools, are composed entirely of 
adults. Even commercial clubs and chambers of commerce have 
used the university discussion service extensively, some of them 
holding semiformal debates on such questions as the unicameral 
legislature and the city-manager plan of municipal government. In 
rural communities the question of consolidation of schools naturally 
interested the farmers, and they used extensively the debate bulletin 
and other material furnished by the extension division. The director 
of the division cites instances where communities debated certain 
questions in open meetings for several weeks in succession. 

Other universities report an increasing interest on the part of 
mature persons in public discussion service. Evidence is chiefly 
taken from the character of the inquiries and the nature of the sub- 
jects under discussion. When a State legislature is considering such 
problems as mothers' pensions, the establishment of a department of 
hygiene, the revision of tax laws, subsidy for private normal schools, 
and other subjects not usually interesting to the general public, it 
has been found that inquiries on those problems come in quickly 
from every part of the State, and that practically all the inquiries 
come from adults. They are not the result of the debating or civic 
work in the public schools; they arise from the serious interest of 
mature persons in the problems of the community and the State. 

Choosing debate suhjects. — Package library subjects, including de- 
batable questions, are determined by the public discussion bureaus, 
by study of the current questions before the State legislature and 
before Congress, and by selection from the topics that appear in news- 
papers and magazines. Professors in the social science departments 
are frequently consulted for lists of subjects and for sources of ma- 
terial and the preparation of bibliographies. 

Much the same procedure is followed in determining the subject 
for debate in the high-school discussion leagues. In some extension 
divisions different methods are used in providing opportunity for 
discussion clubs and debating unions to assist in the choosing of 
subjects. Local officers, school principals, and teachers are invited 
to suggest propositions. Sometimes a printed or mimeographed list 
of subjects is sent to high-school principals, county superintendents, 
civic teachers, and debate coaches, in the form of a ballot, and the 
returns provide guidance in the final selection. In some States a 
committee of school men has a share in the management of the debat- 
ing leagues and assists in the selection of the questions for discussion. 



PUBLIC DISCUSSIOlSr AND UNIVEKSITY EXTENSIOIS". 47 

In some States, notably Indiana, the question for the discussion 
league, when jfinally chosen, is not stated as a formal debate propo- 
sition, but in general terms. This is done in order to obviate criticism 
of the university for alleged interference in public affairs, and be- 
cause it seems advisable not to suggest a definite contention to the 
contestant, but rather to leave him free to take his own point of view. 
Some of the subjects chosen in Indiana were phrased as follows: 
"How May We Improve County Government?" "Municipal Home 
Eule;" " Universal Training for Citizenship." 

A consideration of the numerous printed bulletins issued by ex- 
tension divisions during the last five years shows how completely 
the discussion service has dealt with subjects of current interest and 
importance. In the States where some form of high-school discus- 
sion league is directed or assisted by the State university the 
extension division issues bulletins containing the constitution and 
regulations of the league, instructions for debating, and suggestions 
concerning the use of material. They also issue one or more bulletins 
a year containing outlines, suggestions, bibliography, and other 
matter on the main question for debate. These are sometimes mimeo- 
graphed, but more often printed. The following is a list of a num- 
ber of these bulletins, most of which are printed and still available. 
Those marked with an asterisk are out of print. Where the name 
of a State is given, the extension division of the State university is 
meant. 

Compulsory Health Insurance — California, Oregon, Iowa.* 

Compulsory Universal Military Service — California, Indiana. 

Compulsory Military Training — North Carolina, Virginia. 

Compulsory Industrial Insurance — Iowa. 

Compulsory Arbitration between Capital and Labor — Kansas, North Carolina, 
Oklahoma. 

Consolidation of Rural Schools — Texas, Oklahoma 

Commission Form of Government — North Dakota,* Washington. 

City Manager Plan — Oklahoma, Kentucky. 

Current Events Study Topics — Oklahoma. 

Compulsory School Attendance — Virginia. 

Constitutional Tax for the Support of Higher Institutions of Learning in 
Texas — Texas. 

Continuing Fuel Administration — South Dakota. 

Cabinet System of Government — Oregon. 

Capital Punishment — Virginia. 

County Government — Indiana. 

Enlargement of the Navy — North Carolina, Oregon, North Dakota, Virginia. 

Federal Ownership and Operation of Railroads — Iowa, Michigan, North Caro- 
lina, Oklahoma, Virginia, Oregon, Washington State College. 

Federal Control of Prices of the Necessities of Life — lotoa. 

Federal Ownership of Telegraph and Telephone Ijines— North Dakota, Wash- 
ington. 

Government Monopoly of Manufacture of Munitions of War — California. 

Guaranty of Bank Deposits — Oklahoma,* Oregon.* 



48 PUBLIC DISCUSSIOIT AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 

Good Roads — Virginia. 

Initiative and Referendum — North Dakota, North Carolina, Oklahoma,* Wis- 
consin. 

International Disarmament — Virginia. 

International Peace League — Oregon. 

League of Nations — Wisconsin. 

League to Enforce Peace — California, Oregon, Virginia. 

Local versus State Control of Public Service Utilities — Washington State 
College. 

Minimum Wage — lotca, Michigan,* Washington.* 

Monroe Doctrine — Oklahoma, Washington.* 

Municipal Ownership — Washington.* 

Military Preparedness — ^eoeas. 

Military Training in Public Schools — Washington, Washington State College. 

Municipal Home Rule — Indiana, Wisconsin. 

New Constitution for Indiana — Indiana. 

National Conservation of Natural Resources — Oregon.* 

Parcel Post Express — North Dakota.* 

Patronage of Mail Order Houses Detrimental — North Dakota. 

Preferential Ballot — Oklahoma. 

Proportional Representation — Oregon. * 

Restriction of Immigration — Oregon,* Iowa, Washington, Virginia. 

Recall of Judges — Kansas, Washington, Virginia, Wisconsin. 

Regulation of Municipal Utilities — Washington. 

Six- Year Presidential Term — California. 

Single House Legislature — California, Oklahoma. 

State Ownership of Elevators — North Dakota. 

Selling Munitions of War — Oklahoma. 

Studies on current topics: The Great War — Oklahoma. 

State Ownership and Development of Lignite Coal Mines — North Dakota.* 

Social Problems — Oklahoma. 

State Construction of Roads and Permanent Highways — Washington. 

Ship Subsidies — North Carolina, Oregon, Virginia. 

Single Tax — California, Oklahoma; Texas, Washington. 

The Swiss Military System — North Dakota, Oregon, Texas. 

Training for Citizenship — -Wi\sconsin. 

Teachers' Pensions — Oklahoma.* 

Tariff — Oregon. 

LTniversal Service for Citizenship — Indiana. 

War Finance in the United States — Indiana. 

War and the Problems of Peace — Oklahoma. 

Workingmen's Insurance — North Dakota.* 

Woman Suifrage — Virginia, Texas, Oklahoma. 

Workmen's Compensation — Oklahoma. 

EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF DEBATING AND PUBLIC DISCUSSION. 

Some iTniversity professors, taking an academic view, doubt the 
advisability of having the university promote public discussion and 
.debating, not only because they consider the service outside the 
scope and function of the university, but also because they do not 
have much confidence in the educational value of the package 
library, the club study outline, or the debate and discussion contest. 



PUBLIC DISCUSSION AifD UNIVEESITY EXTENSION. 49 

Whether the public-discussion service of university extension is to 
continue as an integral pari of university work depends less on the 
theoretical definition of university function than on the practical 
consideration of the value of the service to the public. If the public 
finds real value and practical help in the extension service, it should 
be continued, whether it meets rigidly academic educational stand- 
ards or not, providing that the university is the best-fitted instru- 
ment to do this work. However, there are good pedagogical reasons 
why public-discussion service should be not only maintained but 
also expanded with the merited approval of school officials and 
university professors. 

Perhaps the best statement of the educational theory behind de- 
bating and public discussion is that of Prof. Hollo L. Lyman, of 
the University of Chicago. After discussing the need of reawaken- 
ing public interest in serious study of important questions of the 
day, he says : ^ 

A leadership must be formed which will organize in its turn the leaders of 
our rural communities, so directing and supplementing their endeavors as to 
foster the formation and spread of ideas on serious subjects. From the 
masses of literature, frivolous and useless, must be selected the weighty and 
worthy. It must be made easily available for every investigator in the State, 
however humble. 

The breath of real intellectual life must be put into study clubs, debating 
clubs, women's clubs, and the like, by furnishing v^^hoever desires it a ready 
fund of reliable information upon any important topic of current interest. 
What the legislative library is to legislators, this in a small way our package 
libraries and debaters aids can be to hundreds of voters of the State. 

The creed. — After suggesting the desirability of enlarging the 
service to include the distribution or " promulgation of suitable read- 
ing, songs, programs, amateur entertainments of all sorts, including 
theatricals, all of which may serve the artistic side of the educative 
process," he lists what he calls the seven articles of the creed of 
university men who are endeavoring to promote discussion service. 

(1) The essence of any practical educative process is the solving of 
problem situations, the formation of sound judgment on accurate data, the 
cultivation of the power of successful behavior in emergencies in which the 
judgment is the chief feature. 

(2) Such judgments are never based upon guesswork, upon meager or false 
information. The facts, the data, a definite knowledge of human experience 
in the field under consideration and in allied fields — these are indispensable 
to the formation of reliable judgments. 

(3) This information can be accumulated, even in well-equipped centers, 
only by trained investigators, who have at their disposal both library facilities 
and library methods. In modern magazine literature, at least, kernels of 

1 " The Relation of Extension Department to Debating and Discussion Clubs. Peda- 
gogical Considerations," by Rollo L. Lyman, Editor of School Review and Associate 
Professor of English, University of Chicago. In Proc. First Nat. Univ. Extension Con., 
1915, 



50 PUBLIC DISCUSSIOIT AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 

truth are often buried in cumbersome busks of worthless material. The graiu 
must be separated for people who have neither the ability nor the facilities 
for doing it themselves. 

(4) But it is not so much sound judgment upon any one definite issue, like 
equal suffrage, that is important. It is the habit of forming sound judgments 
which we desire to foster. Now, this habit iS to be acquired, not only by seek- 
ing and securing the facts of correlating experiences, but also by self-activity. 
This is best to be secured by reflecting upon the data, organizing it pro and con, 
by marshaling fact against fact, affirmative inferences from a set of facts 
against negative inferences from the same facts. In other words, judgment 
forming becomes a habit, an asset, only as it becomes an orderly and systematic 
procedure in approaching any new problem. 

(5) This process of seeking information, examining inferences, and reaching 
accurate conclusions is best fostered by the desire to make some one else see 
the truth. It is fostered by standing before a group of people less Informed 
than the truth-speaker himself and endeavoring to mold their judgments to 
conform with his own. The best check that is known against the natural in- 
clination to rely upon partisan arguments is the presence of a live opponent 
who is to speak on the other side. Add to this feature the greater satisfaction 
in preliminary study, when one knows that others will hear him and have 
their judgment perhaps molded by his; add the pleasure of combat (for every 
audience casts a ballot in some form), sum up these considerations, and you 
have the chief inducements to earnest preparation which the forum offers. 

(6) I ought to speak, too, of the hearty belief we have in the happy influence 
of speaking itself, especially for youth. Self-control, self-confidence, aggressive- 
ness, fitness for leadership, all lie in the train of public discussion. To be able 
to express to others effectively in oral presentation the results of one's own 
thinking remains to-day, as two thousand year ago in the schools of the sophists, 
at once a spur to educational progress and a test of it as well. 

(7) Last in this chain of theory I place the social advantage that comes to 
the nonparticipants in a public discussion. The desire to emulate others is an 
active influence which drags many a person to his feet, to stumble and falter 
through his first attempt — the spur to best endeavors, both for speakers and 
hearers, that lies in public discussion. 

Prof. Lyman concludes his paper by a description of the psycho- 
logical process involved in public discussion, and adds this summary : 

We would supply data to remove ignorance; we would promote the weighing 
process ; we would give to each idea the check of the opposing idea ; we would 
surround it all by the stimulus of the contact of mind with mind, of audience 
and speakers. Your crossroads debating society, which our departments at- 
tempt to assist, roughly, imperfectly, can teach and does teach men and women 
to think seriously, enthusiastically, happily, and, to a certain extent, effectively. 
This is, I submit, the supreme desideration of any and all truly educative proc- 
esses. 

Student dehatvng. — In judging the value of debating to the student 
and to the local community, the opinion of secondary-school princi- 
pals should be especially worthy of consideration. The Principals' 
Eound Table, of Allegheny County, Pa., which supervises the inter- 
scholastic contest held annually at the University of Pittsburgh, has 
issued a Debater's Manual for Secondary Schools ,i which gives 



1 University of Pittsburgh Bulletin, May 17, 1917, University Extension Manual of 
Secondary School Activities. 



PUBLIC DISCUSSION AISTD UNIVEESITY EXTENSION. 51 

thorough consideration to the value of debating. It summarizes the 
benefit to the student as follows : 

Training in self-control ; formation of correct habits of speecli ; organization 
of the power of thought ; ability to recognize sound reasoning. 

(a) The student gains in self-control, physical and mental. 

(&) He learns, in his learning period, to use the best English correctly and to 
the best advantage. 

(c) He learns how to acquire information on subjects in which he is inter- 
ested. 

(d) He learns how to formulate sound judgments which rest upon his con- 
victions. 

(e) He acquires the ability to grasp the central issues in any problem. 

(f) He learns how to present the truth as he sees it, to others in a con- 
vincing manner. 

{\ff) Finally, he learns how to distinguish between what is credible and 
what is not worthy of belief in all that he reads and hears. 

This is the etlucational province of debating. Its importance should be em- 
phasized by every principal and teacher in secondary schools. Such work 
ought not to be neglected by any young man or woman in the State. 

Concluding a discussion of the value of debating to the commu- 
nity, the Allegheny County report says : 

It can not be denied that one of the most important forces in educating 
the people of the United States in civic affairs and increasing the effectiveness 
of democratic government is the movement toward the wider and fuller de- 
bate and discussion of public questions. In some communities existing po- 
litical and civic bodies are becoming more active ; in others, new organizations 
are being created for the purpose of developing interest in, and discussion of, 
public affairs. Political parties are reorganizing along more democratic lines. 
Good-government bureaus and community clubs are being formed for the pur- 
pose of discussing and carrying into effect certain reforms. Taxpayers' asso- 
ciations are organized to watch the expenditure of public funds. Municipal 
leagues are active in the study of problems peculiar to their community. 
Local, State, and National conferences are frequently being held to study and 
discuss a large variety of economical, social, political, and educational prob- 
lems. There is, therefore, a general growing demand on the part of a large 
body of citizens for more knowledge, more information about public affairs — 
an actual desire to find out the fundamental causes of our social ills and to 
set about in a rational, vigorous, persistent way to remove them. And there 
is just where the value of public school debate manifests itself to the fullest 
extent. The boys and the girls who are to-day in school will form the elec- 
torate of to-morrow. The burden of government will rest upon them, and to 
them must we look for what reforms are needed in our various communities. 
Upon their early training must depend the manner in which they will treat 
the problems of the community in which they will become citizens. If they 
have never had the experience of analyzing present-day problems of the com- 
munity, State, or Nation, and expressing their views upon them, how can they 
be expected to act wisely in later years when problems of a similar nature 
come up for solution? The extension of the franchise to a large number of 
voters increases the need for the study of political affairs. The direct pri- 
mary, the direct election of United States Senators, and other democratic de- 
velopments require that the voters be far better informed on men and meas- 
ures than was necessary under the old regime. 



52 PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVEESITY EXTEIsTSIOIT. 

THE SCOPE OF EXTENSION SERVICE. 

The demand for university extension, or general extension, in the 
United States is definite and strong, and many institutions have 
gradually developed varied services to meet the demand. Analysis 
of those services makes it possible to draw some tentative conclusions 
as to their scope and direction. It is clear that the State universities 
find it possible to conduct some kind of public discussion and infor- 
mation service in practically every State and that they all show a 
disposition to utilize more fully the resources of the university for 
the benefit of the whole people rather than of the comparatively few 
students who attend the classes at the seat of the institution. The re- 
ports from the extension divisions do not generally give exact figures 
as to the number of persons affected by the various activities, chiefly 
because such figures necessarily must be only approximate ; but esti- 
mates show that in the aggregate the number of persons who benefit 
from lectures, courses, institutes, conferences, package libraries, 
visual instruction, and other devices utilized in the dissemination of 
information and the promotion of public discussion is very high and 
that the number of adults who profit from the service is growing 
from year to year. One rough estimate of the scope of four different 
kinds of service in this field totals several million persons served. 
The figures were taken from the report of only part of the total 
number of institutions performing similar service. 

Extent of the extension service. 



Number of 
individuals. 



Extension lectures (1918-19) 

Debate and discussion 

Institutes and conferences 

Requests for information answered. 




Such figvires fail to give more than a conservative estimate of the 
persons who appear in the records of the extension division. They do 
not include the large number who attended those lectures, on which no 
report was received. Similarly, if a member of a club after securing 
information from the division presents it in turn to the whole club, 
and fails to report back the use made of the information, the records 
show only that the material was sent to one person. It is of course 
impossible to estimate how extensively a printed bulletin is used; 
and it is usually difficult to secure estimates of the attendance at 
exhibits or expositions or even conferences when these are held in 
scattered parts of the State. 

Varied services. — ^^The varied nature of the public discussion and 
information service of university extension is probably the most 



PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 53 

striking fact brought out by a study of the work. The service is 
not standardized ; it is not the same in each State ; it changes from 
year to year. It was proved to be adaptable by its quick attention 
to war problems during the war and to reconstruction problems since 
the conclusion of the war. The package library and the general club 
service of the extension divisions are adapted to meet the needs of 
different individuals and various kinds of organizations. They take 
many different forms, from a sunple arrangement like that between 
a club leader and the bureau which lends him a package library on 
a well-known subject, to a complex system which makes it possible 
for the university to maintain for weeks at a time in a community a 
series of open discussions on one or more important problems. 

During the war and since the signing of the armistice there has 
been a tremendous increase in the vitality of opinion of the great 
mass of the people the world over. Everywhere the common people 
are alive to the implications of the democratic ideal. That ideal 
is being translated into action, into specific proposals and measures 
for securing to the workers of hand and brain the rich resources of 
laffid and industry, of science and art, to the end that all people 
shall have free and satisfying access to the indispensable elements of 
adequate living. Whether the economic demands of the people will 
secure results commensurable with the results of the political de- 
mands which have democratized governments everywhere, or whether 
"industrial democracy" will still remain a theory rather than a 
progressively growing fact, it is certain that the demand of the com- 
mon people for a greater share in a better education has become so 
overwhelmingly strong that nothing stands in its way but the dif- 
ficulty of meeting it adequately and well. And the education which 
is most insistently striven for is not the formal thing, the narrow 
schooling for the young, the academically barren instruction of the 
classroom, or even practical courses which add to the earning power 
of the worker-student. It is rather the education which has cultural 
value, that satisfies the student as a person, that sharpens his emo- 
tional and intellectual perceptions, that gives him a sense of power, 
strength, and validity in social relations, that makes him at home 
with his fellows, a part of his community and a coworker with other 
citizens in the improvement of community living. 

What the people want is not institutional education alone, but 
rather more educational service — something progressive and dynamic, 
not static and fixed. In the United States university extension has 
developed partly on the assumption that there is such a want. The 
rapid development of extension service is evidence of the correctness 
of the assumption. In England there is no doubt that the working- 
man wants information and knowledge for its own sake. The re- 



64 PUBLIC DISCUSSIOE" AND UNIVEKSITY EXTENSION. 

port of a subcommittee on adult education to the British ministry 
of reconstruction ^ begins with these significant statements : 

We would point out here that there is a wide and growing demand among 
adults for education of a nonvocational character. * * * The motive which 
impels men and women to seek education is partly the wish for fuller per- 
sonal development. It arises from the desire for knowledge, for self-expression, 
for the satisfaction of intellectual, esthetic, and spiritual needs, and for a 
fuller life. It is based upon a claim for fuller recognition of human person- 
ality. * * * Tj^e motive is also partly social. Indeed, so far as the workers 
are concerned, it is, we think, this social purpose which principally inspires the 
desire for education. 

That a social purpose should so largely be the force underlying the demand 
for adult education is a fact which will be regarded, we think, with general 
sympathy and approval. It is evidence of an appreciation of the responsi- 
bilities of citizenship; of the existence of political, social, and industrial 
ideals ; and of a growing determination to realize them. It will be universally 
admitted that the successful working of a democratic society implies a wide 
diffusion of a sense of responsibility and the intelligent participation in public 
affairs by the rank and file of the population. In view both of the grave prob- 
lems with which the country will be confronted in the generations after the 
war and of the ever-increasing complexity of social organization, the need 
for the intelligent interest and the active cooperation of the mass of citizens 
will be greater than ever before. Women as well as men must make a direct 
contribution to the solution of future problems. The extension of the fran- 
chise to women is a significent expression of this need. 

The citizens of the country can not fully contribute their experience or 
ideals to its service unless they are articulate and possess knowledge. In 
other words, democracy can only be operative through an educated com- 
munity. * * * In any case education is a continuing process, differing in 
its forms and methods with the age and experience of students, but expressing 
a permanent human need. Facilities for adult education must therefore be 
regarded as permanently essential, whatever developments there may be in 
the education of children and adolescents. 

In America the idea of free schools is paramount in democratic 
tradition. The extension of educational opportunity to all persons, 
whether young or old, is a necessary succession. That the oppor- 
tunity should include participation by the rank and file in the give 
and take of public discussion and untrammeled access to the stream 
of knowledge concerning community affairs is not remarkably new 
or radical in its implications. The striking fact in the thought of 
the people to-day is the desire for an increasing measure of service 
from the educational institutions of the State in the application of 
science and art to the more adequate development of universal life 
and living. The universities are consciously meeting that desire 
with new force and vitality in their ideal of service. 

1 Interim Report on Industrial and Social Conditionsi in Relation to Adult Education, 
March, 1918. 

o 



I 



(Continued from page 2 of cover.) 

No. 45. North central accredited secondary schools. Calvin O. Davis. 

46. Bibliography of home economics. Carrie Alberta Lyford. 

47. Private commercial and business schools, 1917-18. 

48. Educational hygiene. Willard S. Small. 

49. Education in parts of the British Empire. 

50. The public-school system of Memphis, Tenn. (In seven parts.) 

51. The application of commercial advertising methods to university exten- 

sion. Mary B. Orvis. 

52. Industrial schools for delinquents, 1917-18. 

53. Educational work of the Young Men's Christian Association, 1916-1918. 

54. The schools of Austria-Hungary. Peter H. Pearson. 

55. Business education in secondary schools. 

56. The administration of correspondence-study departments of universities 

and colleges. Arthur J. Klein. 

57. Educational conditions in Japan. Walter A. Montgomery. 

58. Commercial engineering. Glen L. Swlggett. 

59. Some phases of educational progress In Latin America. Walter A. 

Montgomery. 

60. Monthly record of current educational publications, September, 1919. 

61. Public discussion and information service of university extension. Wal- 

ton S. Bittner. 

62. Class extension work in universities and colleges of the United States. 

Arthur J. Klein. 

63. Natural science teaching in Great Britain. 

64. Library activities, 1916-1918. John D. Wolcott. 

65. The eyesight of school children. J. H. Berkowitz. 

66. Training teachers of agriculture. 

67. Monthly record of current educational publications, October, 1919. 

68. Financial and building needs of the schools of Lexington, Ky. 

69. Proceedings of the fourth annual meeting of the National Council of Pri- 

mary-Education. 

70. Schools and classes for feeble-minded and subnormal children, 1918. 

71. Educational directory, 1919-20. (In seven parts.) 

72. An abstract of the report on the public-school system of Memphis, Tenn. 

73. Nurse-training schools, 1918. 

74. The Federal executive departments as sources of information for libra- 

ries. Edith Guerrier. 

75. Monthly record of current educational publications, November, 1919. 

76. Community Americanization. Fred C. Butler. 

77. State Americanization. Fred C. Butler. 

78. Schools and classes for the blind, 1917-18. 

79. Schools for the deaf, 1917-18. 

80. Teaching English to the foreign born. B.enry H. Goldberger. 

81. Statistics of normal schools, 1917-18. L. E. Blauch and H. R. Bonner. 

82. Motion pictures and motion-picture equipment. 

83. Monthly record of educational publications, December, 1919. 

84. The university extension movement. W. S. Bittner. 

85. Development of agricultural Instruction in secondary schools. 

86. Administration and supervision of village schools. 



daylord Bros. 

Makers 

vSyracuse, N. Y. 

PAT. JAN. 21, 1908 



